A new bar and restaurant will be the toast of Rushmere Shopping Centre, with plans for Co Armagh’s latest hospitality venue now given the seal of approval, Armagh I can reveal.
As one door closes, another opens, and Craigavon venue’s latest development will be housed in the former Synge & Byrne unit, which shut up shop in March last year after five years in business.
This latest venture will see that unit extended, with an outside seating area too.
It will also have its own entrance, so will not be tied to the normal closing hours at Rushmere.
Indeed, a supporting statement had indicated the latest enterprise would being “a new hospitality offering that will provide good food and drink all day and into the evening”.
Rushmere opened 5o years ago, then Craigavon Shopping Centre, home to such notable names as Crazy Prices and Dunnes Stores, the latter of which still trades in the centre. But it has been over 30 years since visitors to the retail complex will have had access to a licensed bar on site.
Now, proposals for this new bar and restaurant have been given the go-ahead by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council.
Main features of the new outlet – which will be glazed from floor to ceiling – will see it serve up an 82-seater restaurant with a “variety of seating configurations”, as well as 26 seats within the outdoor area.
There would also be a bar and a waiting area, as well as unisex and disability access toilet provision.
An office, food store, walk-in fridge and freezer and staff toilets are included within the proposals now approved.
The development will see the existing Unit 36 – sitting next door to the EE phone store – refurbished and extended.
The outside seating area will be delivered with a “decorative planting enclosure”.
There would also be a new customer access to Rushmere’s west entrance; the bar and restaurant will be able to be accessed through the shopping centre or via the external seating area.
The supporting statement explains: “The extended restaurant, its regenerated façade and mall entrance will provide a vibrant, accessible and positive contribution to the area’s townscape with a warm, welcoming and active frontage.”
The former Synge & Byrne unit boasts floorspace of close to 1,800 sq ft. After the extension – and including the outside space – the new premises will offer floorspace of more than 3,300 sq ft.
The new outlet will serve “to develop and extend the burgeoning evening economy of the shopping centre”.
The planning statement adds: “The extended restaurant will provide a spacious, light and airy facility and provide the customers with the opportunity to consume their meals in an external space, consistent with modern trends.
“The proposal will transform the appearance of the west entrance area, opening the blank brick façade to a welcoming and vibrant glazed frontage, with blue/black engineering brick piers and surrounds that have been used successfully at other locations around Rushmere.”
The new unit will “extend into the underutilised paved area which will assist in the creation of active frontage”, while the west entrance will be “extended and refurbished”.
There would be no change to parking, with the 1,800 existing spaces at Rushmere “ample” to cover the centre and new tenant’s needs.
The supporting statement further adds: “As it has its own dedicated access, it can operate independently of the shopping centre. This will enhance the evening economy of the complex.”
In approving plans, ABC Council officials noted DfI had “no objection as the proposal does not create any road safety concerns”.
And given its previous use as a cafe and deli, the Environmental Health Department would have “no objections in principle for this proposed development”.
Planners, in summation, reported: “The proposal will represent a redevelopment of a vacant unit and will create jobs for the area. Although this is given no determining weight, the proposal will have a positive effect on the local economy.”
