BT/0473

Shopping mall to boost ravaged Omagh

OMAGH'S devastated commercial heart is to be given a £7 million boost with the construction of a state-of-the-art shopping mall in the centre of the Tyrone town.
The planned retail development, which should open by next December, is expected to create up to 200 new jobs.
The Victorian-style mall will have its main entrances on High Street and Kevlin Avenue, not far from the scene of August's bomb blast which left 29 dead and hundreds injured.
The site for the development was acquired jointly by Andrew Marsden of property consultants Lisney and Paul Brannigan of PA Brannigan & Co.
Mr Marsden, who is Omagh-born, said he was delighted the town was to receive the massive cash injection.
''Commercial projects such as this one play a role in helping a town recover from such physical and emotional devastation as suffered by Omagh," he said.
Mr Brannigan said the proposed development represented an opportunity for the UK's leading retailers to obtain a presence "within one of Northern Ireland's strongest provincial towns".