Planning objection withdrawn from Laois development

PLANS for a new housing development in Portlaoise on the site of the former Centrepoint Shopping Centre is set to proceed after an appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála was withdrawn by the developer.

The derelict site totals 4.96 hectares, with the developing company Centrepoint Partners having applied for permission to build 217 homes, including 74 apartments and two commercial buildings with a restaurant, créche and offices on the site.

In an official statement, they said: “The 217 unit development will consist of 74 houses, 141 apartments, including duplexes and two assisted living units. The properties will be made up of nine semi-detached two-storey four-bed townhouses; 37 semi-detached and terraced two-storeys and three-storey, three-bed townhouses; 18 semi-detached and terraced two-storey, two-bed townhouses; ten detached and semi-detached two-bed, single-storey lifetime homes; two detached single-storey, five-bed assisted living units with in-house carer accommodation. The apartments will consist of 29 one-bed, 61 two-bed and 51 three-bed own door apartments and duplex apartments in three and four-storey blocks.” Additionally, the developer said the plans would include “two planned mixed use three-storey commercial buildings which will include a 416.6sq.m créche over two floors to accommodate 61 children and support staff, with a dedicated playground, with separate 359.8sq.m office space and ancillary accommodation to first and second floors, with a separate entrance at ground level and a separate 2,208.9sq.m three-storey commercial building with a public plaza facing onto the Mountrath road, consisting of 511.5sq.m of ground floor retail space and a 311.5sq.m restaurant.” With the proposed site also being situated between Mountrath Road and Harpur’s Lane, the developers are planning to provide links through the estate between the two roads through various cycle and walkway routes.

Centrepoint was a prominent shopping centre in Laois throughout the 1970s and ̓80s but has laid vacant for over 20 years. Having been derelict since 2006, the site has been continually incurring sizeable dereliction fines.

The developer was appealing a Laois Co Council condition that asked for a new 65m diversion of a drain that runs from the Harpur’s Lane entrance to the proposed new pedestrian crossing on Harpur’s Lane. Initially, Centrepoint Partners asked the coimisiún to remove this specification, arguing that it wasn’t needed, especially given that the addition would cost them between €325,00 and €500,000.

An Coimisiún Pleanála was due to make a decision on the appeal before 23 September, but in the end the appeal was withdrawn by Centrepoint Partners.

Since its closure in 2006, the former shopping centre has been the site of numerous incidents of anti-social behaviour, including vandalism, arson and general break-ins.

Faced with this eyesore and the general public demand to do something with the site, Laois Co Council gave the owner six months in July of 2025 to submit housing development plans or face escalating financial penalties for its continued dereliction.

Now that planning permission has been granted and the appeal withdrawn, development of the site must conclude within five years.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.