Urban RedevelopmentEighteen months after buying the Castle Market area of Dublin city, property developers Chris Jones and Francis Rhatigan are beginning to put a bit of shape on the Victorian enclave.
With virtually all the wholesale fashion houses already gone from the area -they are now trading successfully at Fashion City in west Dublin - the new owners of Castle Market have been able to buy in the leasehold interests of the Airwave wholesale fashion showrooms at the junction of Castle Market and Drury Street.
This will open the way for the first significant remodelling of what is one of the city's most charming shopping precincts.
A planning application is being lodged to allow the upgrading of the building which will have a ground floor area of 97.1 sq m (1,045 sq ft) and marginally less on the first floor. There will also be 76.6 sq m(824 sq ft) of storage space in the basement.
Ben Pearson of agent Douglas Newman Good says that with the rag trade now virtually gone from the city, many similar wholesale fashion units have been successfully turned into retail outlets.
The Castle Market area in particular has a whole new range of specialist shops that are trading exceptionally well, helped by the new trendy image of the area.
DNG is seeking a rent of €145,000 for the corner shop once it has been upgraded and with a high level of interest already being shown in it, Mr Pearson expects that it will set a benchmark for the area.
He says that rent increases of between 80 and 117 per cent have already been achieved over the past two years.
Under one of the three leases on Cooks restaurant, the rent has gone from €30,500 to €73,000.
Other rent reviews have pushed the rent for Costume from €24,700 to €60,000 while the rent of the Murphy Sheehy shop has risen from €17,100 to €38,5000.
That trend will undoubtedly be welcomed by Messrs Jones and Rhatigan who were only getting a return of €300,000 from the 10 shops in Castle Market when they bought them for over €12 million in March, 2003.
The tendering process attracted more than 35 bids, easily the highest response for a commercial investment in the city.
Around the corner in South William Street, Douglas Newman Good has let the former Barry wholesale fashion store to the Lemongrass chain of resturants.
The company will be paying €115,000 for the ground, basement and part of the first floors of 10 South William Street.
Lemongrass will widen further the choice of restaurants in an area already popular with diners.
