FAST growing discount retailer The Range is planning a new store in Enniskillen, it has emerged.
The budget department chain, which sells home ware, fashion, leisure and garden goods, currently has five stores around the north.
A 65,000 sq ft superstore is also in the works on the site of the former B&Q outlet on Belfast’s Boucher Road.
Now the company has set its sights on becoming the anchor tenant for a new mixed retail and leisure development in Co Fermanagh.
Elm Grange Limited is proposing 111,000 sq ft of retail space at the former Unipork factory site, around 1km north of Enniskillen town centre.
Its bid includes five retail units, two garden centres, an indoor adventure centre, cinema, bowling alley, hotel, drive-thru restaurant, coffee pod and a large car park.
A sign erected on the site this week revealed that, subject to planning approval, The Range will form part of the new Lakelands Retail and Leisure Park.
It’s understood that at 35,000 sq ft, the UK retailer’s unit will become the anchor store on the site.
Moviebowl has also been linked to the development.
Elm Grange Limited submitted its planning application to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in early December.
To date, 86 people have lodged their objection to the project online.
The businessmen behind Elm Grange Limited are Mark Curran, managing director of Co Armagh motor parts company CMP, and Frank Curran, managing director of Moy development firm Roxborough Plant & Construction.
The Range was set up in 1989 by Plymouth-based market trader Chris Dawson. The company now runs over 175 stores.
Last year the retailer opened at the Northcott shopping centre in Glengormley, creating 70 jobs. It joined outlets in Portadown, Ballymena, Derry and the Connswater shopping centre in east Belfast.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Mr Dawson and his family were worth just under £2bn last year.
