Plans lodged to develop food court at Cork's Paul Street Shopping Centre 

Planning permission is being sought to develop a food court at Paul Street Shopping Centre.

Holren Properties Ahall Ltd has lodged a planning application with Cork City Council seeking permission to change the use of the existing first-floor retail area in the centre to a food court area.

It is proposed that this area would include four new food kiosks and kitchen areas, one movable food kiosk, a staff bathroom, and a communal dining area.

The application also seeks to remove an existing glazed balcony wall inside the shopping centre, to be replaced with partition and toughened glass on top.

An exterior horizontal extraction system over Paul’s Lane would be installed, to be connected to the existing vertical extraction unit between the food court area and the car park, with connections into existing public services on site.

The application is at the pre-validation stage.

It follows the opening of a new coffee shop earlier this summer.

Guji Coffee Bar opened to the public in recent weeks following an investment of more than €100,000.

Speaking to The Echo, the owner of Guji Coffee Bar, Alan Andrews, said that a revival to the space on the first floor would bring “a heartbeat” back to the plaza on Paul St.

“Making the best of that space is going to really help attract people to stay in the centre a bit longer as opposed to just walking through,” Mr Andrews said.

“There’s a great cross-section of people that visit the shopping centre, and the carpark gets a phenomenal amount of traffic, so it’s obviously a very good location in the city [and] what I think they [the owners] are looking to do is to cater to those people.

“There’s a great mix of retail in the centre already, but what’s missing is more casual dining [and] affordable food options.”

Cork City Council is due to make a decision on the development application by November 4.