Court rules against Dunnes Stores in long-running Docklands row
One of the most high-profile casualties of "the recession" was the enormous Point Village shopping centre at Dublin's Docklands, which has sat dormant and empty (but for a cinema on the top floor) for a decade, in part due to a complicated legal row between the developers and Dunnes Stores, which at one point intended to open a supermarket on the site.
Print27 July 2018
For ten years, Dunnes Stores has been embroiled in a complicated legal dispute with the Point Village Development company. The row has been centred on the Point Village Shopping Centre, which has lain dormant for a decasde since construction was completed in 2008.
In a blow to the retail giant, the latest phase of the case, taking place in the Court of Appeals, has been struck out, with the judge presiding calling it “entirely without merit”.
The Irish Times reports that the appeal was over a clause in the 2008 contract between PVD and Dunnes, in which the retailer could appoint an independent inspector to examine the premises to agree whether it had been completed in accordance with the contract. Dunnes stated that this clause was not honoured by the receivers, and so had been refusing to release an agreed 3m to the company.
The entire complexities of the contract case can be seen in the Times’ report, but in short, the Court of Appeals struck out the case, calling it “entirely without merit”, “an abuse of process” and “an attempt to frustrate and repudiate a commercial agreement negotiated at arms length” to which Dunnes “had freely agreed”.
Further rulings on the case are due to be made at a later date.
Meanwhile, there has been another explosion in construction in that area. Thousands of apartments, offices and retail units are under construction in the Docklands and Point Village area. The long-vacant shopping centre is almost certain to rumble into life in the near future; however, will Dunnes Stores be the anchor tenant, as was the original plan? That ship may have sailed.
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