Brown Thomas is opening a massive new store in Dundrum

Brown Thomas is opening a massive new store in Dundrum.

The Irish Times report the retailer will be taking over the lower ground floor and the ground floor of House of Fraser. The location will be more than 63,000sq ft, which the publication repot is about half the size of Brown Thomas' Grafton Street store. Brown Thomas' BT2 outlet in Dundrum will be vacated when the new store opens in the first half of 2021. House of Fraser, meanwhile, is said to be ceasing trading in May this year. "Despite our best efforts over the last 12 months, we have been served notice by our landlords in Dundrum," a spokeswoman for House of Fraser in Dundrum told the publication. She added that while the announcement wasn't one that they expected, they hope many of their current staff "will now be employed by the new tenant". Brown Thomas said that the vision for the Dundrum location was to create a space that was contemporary, and a mix of the "physical and digital, designed to enhance the shopping experience for customers”. “We have been looking for a larger space at Dundrum for a number of years to enable us to deliver a more enhanced customer experience, and, in particular, to help grow our successful BT2 business there," Donald McDonald, managing director of Brown Thomas Arnotts said. "In the meantime, it will be business as usual for the existing BT2 store in Dundrum, and for customers and team members.”