As a result the opening of the much-sought-after facility has been fast-tracked to this autumn as soon as the designated space is fitted out.
Ballymore Properties, the developers behind the shopping centre, have spent much of the last three years at
tempting to find an alternative location for the cinema, citing a desire to provide a bigger and better mulitplex cinema experience to customers. The move back into the shopping centre is being cited as a temporary fix until the economy picks up and funds are available to relocate to an agreed site at the rear of the centre.
This is a move that will please Newbridge Concerned Residents (NCR) who have campaigned tirelessly for a cinema in Newbridge and whose preferred location has always been inside the shopping centre as per the original planning application. United Cinemas International (UCI) will operate the cinema.
"It is going into the orginal spot in the Whitewater Shopping Centre," said Paul Keogh, Group Director of Ballymore Properties. "When we're in a position UCI will be contracted to move to the other location subject to planning. The cinema will be open for a period of time in the orginal location. It is simply a matter of fitting it out. UCI plan to pick a big release to advertise the opening this autumn. In the current economic climate this is the best solution. UCI were happy to lock in with plans and have the opportunity to open in Newbridge."
Centre manager Lisa Fogarty said: "The cinema will be located between Debenhams and the walkway to the multi-storey car park," she added. "We don't have the funds to build the cinema outside the centre. It will go back into where it was orginally planned. The room is ready – it just needs to be fitted out."
Whitewater has come under severe criticism in the past over the delay in providing a cinema in Newbridge.
Whitewater has had a planning application for a cinema in one form or another with Kildare County Council since early 2007 when, despite originally getting planning permission to build one as part of the shopping centre when it was built, it applied to build one at the Bradshaw site on the other side of the inner relief road.
Kildare County Council issued a number of requests for further information from the shopping centre developers, and on each occasion Whitewater took the full six months to respond, and never to the satisfaction of the council planning department, which finally turned down the planning application.
But on January 18 last, Whitewater formally gave up on the idea of moving to Bradshaws and a company called Clemens Pont Ltd applied for planning permission to build an extension to the shopping centre on a .43-hectare site with seating for 1,300. Permission was finally granted for an eight-screen cinema at the rear of the Whitewater Shopping Centre last May.
Orla O'Neil of NCR said they feel "vindicated" and welcomed the news.
"It vindicates everything that we have ever said," she told the Leinster Leader. "We are delighted to hear that the cinema is imminent and going into the place that we always thought was the most suitable. It marks the end of a long and unnecessary campaign."
