Investments: The Royal Liver Retail Park on the Naas Road in west Dublin has been sold for well over its guide price of €45 million, writes Jack Fagan
The struggling Royal Liver Retail Park on the Naas Road in west Dublin has been sold for just over €60 million - a long way ahead of the €45 million guide price for the city's first purpose-built retail warehousing complex.
The identity of the new owner will also create a surprise because, while there were six or seven tenders mainly from consortia formed by investors and construction companies, the successful bid came from a little known house builder based in the provinces.
Selling agent DTZ Sherry FitzGerald could not confirm the sale yesterday.
The new owner is expected to continue to operate the park in the medium term - it has a rent roll of €2.167 million - and possibly look at having the high profile eight-acre site rezoned for residential use in the next development plan which is not due for at least five years.
Most of the groups which tendered for the park apparently planned in the long-term to redevelop it for apartments. Some also favoured building a hotel as part of a residential scheme with a basement car-park.
The opening of the Luas service beside the site would obviously have strengthened the case for a high density residential development.
The park was the first of its kind in the Dublin area to specialise in the sale of bulky goods when it opened for business in 1990. The two anchor tenants - Homebase and Atlantic - were quick to come on board, signing 35-year leases, but it took a considerable time to fill all the buildings which have a floor area of 12,051sq m (129,730sq ft).
The park has had poor trading figures in recent years, largely because of weak management by Royal Liver and its failure to bring in new tenants.
The Liverpool-based company failed to find a replacement for Rocca Tiles which closed three years ago. Now Bargaintown has also put its outlet on the market but so far there have been no takers.
The retail park has suffered from poor access, which is located at the rear of the site. It has also been hit by the opening of a Woodies store a short distance away on the Naas Road, and also by the competition from two major B & Q outlets at Liffey Valley Retail Park and Belgard Road in Tallaght.
DTZ Sherry FitzGerald advised groups bidding for the park that they could expect a significant increase in the rent roll when rents are reviewed shortly.
Most of the units are let at between €161 and €215 per sq m (€15-€20 per sq ft) whereas rents in some of the newer parks in Dublin range between €323 and €377 per sq m (€30-€35 per sq ft).
Homebase is paying a rent of €692,007 for a store of 4,160sq m (44,785sq ft). The other anchor, Atlantic, pays €486,000 for 2,580sq m (27,773sq ft).
The other tenants are Bargaintown whose rent is €319,000; Reid Furniture rents at €266,645; Carpet Right rents at €212,100; and Harry Corry which pays €191,908 in rent.
