The 250m scheme, which is being jointly developed by Sean Mulryan of Ballymore Properties and Sean Dunne of Mountbrook Homes, has already confirmed that Marks & Spencer, H&M and Debenhams are anchor tenants. However, the expected addition of the Spanish fashion retailer will copperfasten the developer's aim to establish Whitewater as Kildare's answer to the Dundrum town centre.

While there has been no official confirmation of Zara taking a unit in the centre, development manager Gary Cooper says negotiations are almost complete with a number of retailers, with an announcement expected at the end of January.

Zara opened its first Irish store on Henry Street in November 2003 and has since established outlets at the Blanchardstown and Dundrum centres, in Cork and Limerick.

The chain's owner, Inditex, which is based in La Coruna in Spain, also owns the Bershka, Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear brands.

In its first full year of trading on Henry Street, the firm reported sales of 17m, on which it made an operating profit of 2.77m.

The company was set up 30 years ago and now has over 2,500 stores in 60 countries.

To put the Henry Street figures in context, Inditex had sales of 4.65bn in the first three-quarters of 2005 with reported net profits of 520.5m.

Whitewater is on course to open in April and will house over 60 retailers including Easons, A-Wear, Health Express Pharmacy, Champion Sports, Coast, Karen Millen, Oasis, New Look, Ladybird, Card Gallery, Bodyshop, Virgin and Jane Norman.

In addition, there will be 1,700 car parking spaces, a food court catering for 650 people and a multi-screen cineplex.

The centre will employ approximately 1,500 full and part time staff, in addition to the 1,000 workers employed during the construction phase.

Development manager Gary Cooper says that there is huge pent-up demand for the centre in Kildare and the surrounding counties of Carlow, Kilkenny and Offaly.

"While previously people living in those counties would have travelled to Dublin to shop, we are confident that the new centre will be a more attractive destination for them, " he says.

The letting agents for Whitewater Shopping Centre are Hamilton Osborne King and Colm McEvoy Auctioneers.