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Victoria's Secret is moving its Irish flagship store from Grafton Street to Nassau Street in Dublin. Brown Thomas is objecting to plans to redevelop the former site for a premium beauty retailer, reportedly Space NK, claiming an overconcentration of cosmetics stores in the area.
Lingerie brand set to make way for new retailer after relocating flagship store to nearby Nassau Street Victoria’s Secret plans to move its flagship Irish store from Grafton Street to Nassau Street in Dublin.
Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesHigh-end retailer Brown Thomas is objecting to plans to redevelop the Victoria’s Secret outlet on Dublin’s Grafton Street to make way for “a premium beauty retailer”. The owner of 28/29 Grafton Street, businessman Eamon Waters’ Huntstown Bioenergy UC, last month lodged companion planning applications with Dublin City Council for the overhaul of the store, which includes upgrades to the shopfront.
This followed the American lingerie brand’s decision to move its flagship Irish store from Grafton Street to retail units 1 and 2 at 40-43 Nassau Street. However, in an objection lodged with the city council, operations director at Brown Thomas Arnotts Ltd Mark Limby called on the council to refuse planning permission for the overhaul.
Clare Walsh and Paul Vallely: ‘We have a brand that’s on trend, affordable and fun in a category most people find boring’Fuel excise cuts have been given a reprieve – but what happens if oil prices stay high? Limby told the council that the application, if permitted at the scale proposed, would represent a disproportionate and undue additional concentration of a single retail category – cosmetics and beauty products – on the street contrary to policies in the city council’s scheme of special planning control for the area.
The Huntstown planning documents do not name the “prestige” cosmetics firm set to occupy 28/29 Grafton Street, but it was reported in May that the new occupier was to be luxury beauty brand Space NK. It reportedly plans to relocate from its current, smaller premises at 82 Grafton Street. Revenues at Space NK more than doubled from £2.86 million to £7.23 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2025.
In the Brown Thomas objection, Limby contended that the applicant’s survey of existing dedicated cosmetics and beauty retail offerings on Grafton Street was materially understated. Limby said that the survey names only Space NK, Sculpted by Aimee, Kiko Milano and Rituals. He said that it should also include Brown Thomas, which has its own dedicated beauty hall, Boots, Hickey’s Pharmacy, Marks & Spencer and Holland & Barrett.
Limby pointed out that Brown Thomas was making the submission in the context of the store being recognised as a landmark business integral to the character of Grafton Street. How ICG’s push to close €1.2bn buyout in August’s holiday lull backfiredIrish woman named as Spanish police await postmortems on couple found dead in hot tubAndy Burnham in Belfast: Mixing up Donegal and Drogheda, but crystal clear on Border pollDowning Street tries to calm row over Burnham’s ‘off the table’ Irish unity poll remarks
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