LIDL has secured planning permission to build a new £4.5 million supermarket in Coleraine.
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has approved the German retailer’s plans to develop a largely vacant site at the northern end of the Riverside Retail Park.
The project will see a vacant unit demolished to make way for the new 26,640 sq ft Lidl concept store.
It’s understood the unit earmarked for demolition has never been occupied.
The development will effectively see the new Lidl store built onto a block of existing retail units, that include Poundstretcher and Dunelm.
It will replace the existing Lidl store located on Dunhill Road.
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It marks the continuation of the retailer's ongoing programme to replace its oldest stores across the north.
The retailer said the new outlet will support 40 jobs, including 18 new jobs, with 22 staff transferring from the existing Coleraine store.
Lidl currently has opened 41 stores in Northern Ireland since 1999.
The grocer has targeted 50 stores in the north by 2030.
The company’s longer-term aspirations will see it eventually develop as many as 66 northern stores.
While it is continuing to develop new sites, including on Belfast’s Boucher Road and Lisburn’s Sprucefield, a considerable proportion of Lidl’s capital spend on its physical infrastructure has been assigned to replacing its oldest supermarkets.
The report approved by Causeway Coast and Glens’ planning committee on Wednesday states the new Lidl store “will address the need for additional convenience floorspace in Coleraine”, adding that it “will regenerate a vacant site and will provide new employment opportunities”.
Planning officials also determined: “It will not have a significant adverse impact on any protected centre and it complies with the sequential test.
"It is a sustainable development consistent with all relevant planning policy.”
The planning approval comes just three weeks after a significant chunk of Riverside Retail Park was sold to a joint venture involving Ballymena property firm Magell.
Magmel, which involves Dublin-based Melcorpo, paid £10.25m for long-leasehold interest in three large retail units at the site, including the anchor Sainsbury's store.
