RETAIL INVESTMENTS:There will be keen interest in the outcome of the sale of one of Cork's top retail investments - A-Wear on Patrick Street - which is available on a sale and leaseback basis
ONE OF THE best located retail stores in Cork city - A-Wear at 111-112 Patrick Street - is going on the market today on a sale and leaseback basis.
Colliers Jackson-Stops is guiding €23 million for the investment which will show a net initial yield of 3.5 per cent after the usual purchaser's costs have been deducted.
The current rent of €880,000 per annum equates to a Zone A rate of €5,005 per sq m (€465 per sq ft).
The sale has been initiated by Alchemy Partners, a British private equity company which, along with the management of A-Wear, bought out the business from Brown Thomas early in 2007 for a reputed €70 million.
A-Wear is to take a new full repairing and insuring lease on the Cork store for 20 years and three months incorporating five yearly upwards-only rent reviews.
The tenant will have an option to terminate the lease at the end of the 15th year of the term.
The building has an overall net internal floor area of some 939.39sq m (10,115sq ft) while, more importantly, it also provides around 556sq m (almost 6,000sq ft) of net sales area over two floors.
Incidentally, A-Wear also has one of the finest stores on Dublin's Grafton Street where large floor plates attract premium rents.
A-Wear was founded in the 1960s and was originally known as Gay Wear.
Specialising in women's clothing and accessories, it operates from 28 stores - 25 in the Republic, two in Northern Ireland and a concession in the Selfridges store in Birmingham.
The last store opened was at the successful new Whitewater shopping centre in Newbridge, Co Kildare.
A-Wear's Cork store is along a side of Patrick Street which is set to benefit from three new retail developments: the flagship Dunnes Stores, Opera Avenue and the Cornmarket Centre.
Opera Avenue, due to be completed in late 2009, will provide 10,077sq m (108,468sq ft) of retail accommodation with the quoting rents at €5,651 per sq m (€525 per sq ft) for Zone A areas.
TK Maxx is to anchor the Cornmarket Centre with a store of 4,948sq m (53,260sq ft).
Michelle McGarry of Colliers Jackson-Stops describes the A-Wear store in Cork as "a first class investment opportunity" and says it will be a good test of market conditions.
A-Wear, she says, is a highly profitable retail business with a turnover of €80.4 million in 2007 and registered pre-tax profits of €5.2 million.
