A tiny vacant shop at the bottom of Dublin's Grafton Street, rented by Bank of Ireland for the past 34 years, has attracted exceptional interest from traders wanting to move in and a stronger than usual rent from the next tenant.
Claddagh Jewellers, currently trading at the junction of Nassau and Grafton streets, has been chosen to take over the next-door premises at 2 Grafton Street, where the bank operated a mortgage store for many years and later an enterprise centre.
Claddagh plans to operate a second jewellery outlet in the new premises, which has a ground floor area of only 244sq ft and a further 2,066sq ft on the upper floors. The new rent of €175,000 works out at a Zone A figure of €560sq ft.
Darragh Cronin of Savills said that in spite of the limited space there was a larger than usual number of inquiries – most of them from fast-food outlets – largely because of the heavy footfall at the bottom of Grafton Street.
The corner premises is owned by Davy’s Irish Property Fund, which holds €290 million in real-estate assets. The company’s impressive three-year return of 27.3 per cent up to the end of 2016 made it the best performing fund in the Irish market.
