A round-up of other stories in brief

Shaws to open at Drogheda centre

Shaws department store is to join Marks & Spencer as joint anchor tenant in the Laurence Town Centre in Drogheda. Ibusiness for 150 years, Shaws will begin trading next October out of a high profile unit of 3,500sq m (37,674sq ft). Shaws is expected to have broad appeal with lines such as Principles, Warehouse, Bay Trading, Adams, Michael H, Clarkes Shoes and the Body Shop, as well as the latest cosmetic ranges, home and gift ware, and men's and women's fashions. Other traders fitting out include Esprit, Meteor, Hair & Beauty, Free Spirit and Laptop Shop. Savills HOK is in advanced negotiations to let four of the remaining nine units in the centre which is expected to be fully let when it is officially opened next October.

City investments on the double

Finnegan Menton is marketing two interesting investment properties in Dublin city - a retail building at Lower Ormond Quay and an office building at Lower Dorset Street. It is seeking region €1.1 million for Derrynane House at 77 Lower Dorset Street, right, which is let to a firm of solicitors at a rent of €48,600 per annum. The four-storey modern office block with 163sq m (1,755sq ft) of space is built behind a period facade and is let on a 25-year lease. There are three car-parking spaces to the rear. The planned development of the National Children's Hospital nearby is likely to put further pressure on office space in the area. The initial yield works out at 4 per cent.

The same agency is seeking offers over €700,000 for the CQ Communications shop at 22 Lower Ormond Quay which is let on a 20-year lease from 1996 at €26,000. The 50.3sq m (542sq ft) shop will show a yield of 3.3 per cent.

Region €2m for anchor store

Agent Kelly Walsh is quoting region €2 million for the anchor store in a new neighbourhood centre being developed in Kinsealy, Co Dublin. St Olave's will have an excellent mix of facilities when it is completed in September. The main store of 320sq m (3,444sq ft) will have a pivotal position in the centre which will also have six other retail units, four own-door offices, a crèche and a medical clinic. The commercial centre will front onto the busy Malahide Road and will have basement car-parking. St Olave's will be in an upmarket residential development of one to three-bed apartments, two-bed duplexes and three-bed townhouses.

€200,000 rent for Wexford shop

Sharon Walsh of agent HWBC is quoting a rent of €200,000 per annum for one of the best located shops at South Main Street in Wexford. The building at number 18 has a ground floor retail area of 240sq m (2,583sq ft) and additional storage space. It is opposite the entrance to Dunnes Stores and adjoins Penneys, 3G, Carraig Donn and Barratt Shoes. The building, formerly occupied by RTV, has been upgraded and has a double height shopfront.

Bettystown centre takes shape

Sullivan Property Consultants has launched a marketing campaign for the planned €400 million Bettystown Town Centre on the Meath-Louth border. Tesco is to anchor the town centre with a store of 3,251sq m (35,000sq ft) which will trade alongside between 30 and 40 other shops when the centre is completed next year. The promoter, Pat Neville Developments, has begun work on the second phase of the project which will include pedestrianised streets, offices, as well as the retail facilities which will extend to 18,580sq m (200,000sq ft) and an underground car-park. The Bettystown Court Hotel is already operating successfully at the front of the development site.

Fortis moves to Spencer Dock

Fortis Prime Fund Solutions, a subsidiary of Fortis Bank NV, is relocating to Fortis House in Spencer Dock, Park Lane, Dublin 1.

First tenant at Clondalkin office

As part of its expansion in Ireland, Morrison Utility Services has become the first occupant of Steeple House, a new four-storey office building in the centre of Clondalkin and beside South Dublin County Council's civic offices. The building will be occupied by Morrison subsidiary companies, Morrison Utility Serviced Ireland Ltd and Morrison TESL, which is involved in the construction, maintenance and operation of fixed and wireless telecoms networks.

The company is renting 416sq m (4,478sq ft) on the third floor of Steeple House which is located on Thornfield Square on the Ninth Lock Road, opposite The Mill shopping centre. It has 1,787sq m (19,235sq ft) of office space on four levels with basement car-parking. Jones Lang LaSalle is quoting rents in the region of €156 per sq m (€14.5 per sq ft).

€110,000 key money for D2 shop

Savills HOK is seeking key money of €110,000 for the lease of a well located retail building, right, at Stephen Street, close to the St Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin 2. Halo Hair Salon trades out of the building which has a floor area of 134sq m (1,442sq ft), including 54sq m (581sq ft) on the ground floor. The building is held on a 35-year lease from 1993 at a rent of €47,000. It is close to South King Street where a new retail building under construction is to house both Zara and H&M.

€2.3m for D2 office building

Davin auctioneers is quoting €2.3 million for an own-door office building at 8 Clanwilliam Square in Dublin 2. The building has 154sq m (1,658sq ft) of space and two on-site car-parking spaces. The ground and first floors are occupied under a short lease at a rent of €28,800 per annum. Vacant possession of the building will be available in 2009. Davin says an investor could let the vacant second floor to bring the overall rental income up to €52,000. The agency also said that the overall rent should rise to close on €80,000 in 2009 assuming present rental levels. In recent months the agency has sold three buildings in the Clanwilliam development.