Golden Island Shopping Centre

Retail facility on the edge of Athlone, Ireland

  • Owen O'Callaghan
  • Michael Tiernan
  • Tom Diskin
Owner
  • Tesco (2005–2016)
  • Credit Suisse (2016–present)
No. of stores and services45Total retail floor area14,306 square metres (153,990 sq ft)Parking1,000 spacesWebsitegoldenislandshoppingcentre.ie

Golden Island Shopping Centre is a shopping centre located on the outskirts of Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland.

History

The centre in 2009, prior to rebranding in 2016

The centre, which stands on the townland of Goldenisland (Kilmaine),[1] was developed on the site of a former landfill by Owen O'Callaghan, Michael Tiernan and Tom Diskin. Aiming to attract more business to the Midland Region of Ireland, the centre opened in October 1997,[2] and has gained a footfall of 65,000 a week. The shopping centre was sold to Tesco for €52 million in 2005, and it was registered on 24 February 2005 (2005-02-24).[3][4]

Tesco stated in June 2015 that they were considering selling the centre, and the building was purchased by Credit Suisse on 23 March 2016 (2016-03-23) for €43.4 million.[5] Over three years later, on 1 May 2019, the centre was once again put on sale by Credit Suisse for €41 million.[6]

Stores

The centre contains 45 stores, ranging from clothing to health, mobile phone providers and a supermarket. Of the clothing, there is a large Penneys, as well as smaller units such as Diesel. There are many restaurants and cafés in the mall, including Costa Coffee, Burger King and Insomnia. At the eastern end of the mall is a large Tesco, selling food and clothes.

Cinema

The shopping centre also contains an IMC cinema, which opened in 1998 with six screens and a capacity of 871 seats.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ "Golden Island (Kilmaine) Townland, Co. Westmeath". www.townlands.ie. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Westmeath Independent - The movie man". Westmeath Independent. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Golden Island Retail Ltd | Irish Retail Company & Director Check". www.solocheck.ie. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Tesco seeking more than €40m for Athlone centre". The Irish Times. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Athlone's Golden Island shopping centre sold by Tesco to Credit Suisse for €43.5m". The Irish Times. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  6. ^ Quinlan, Ronald. "Athlone's Golden Island shopping centre on the market at €41m". The Irish Times. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  7. ^ "IMC Cinema | Golden Island Shopping Centre, Athlone". Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  8. ^ "IMC Athlone in Athlone, IE - Cinema Treasures". cinematreasures.org. Retrieved 8 December 2018.