A private pension syndicate has paid €9.35 million for Gorey Shopping Centre.
Built originally in 2007, the Wexford scheme is generating a net operating income of €920,000 per annum, which will provide the new owners with a yield of 8.95 per cent.
The sale is understood to have been brokered in an off-market transaction on behalf of US investment group Davidson Kempner by Rod Nowlan of Bannon. Mr Nowlan was unavailable for comment on the matter.
Davidson Kempner acquired Gorey Shopping Centre for its part in 2015 as part of its wider €118 million purchase of the Cornerstone Portfolio – a collection of six provincial shopping centres distributed across six counties.
The portfolio, which had been valued at between €400 million and €450 million prior to the property crash in 2007, also included Athlone Town Centre; a major stake in MacDonagh Junction shopping centre in Kilkenny; Tipp Town Centre in Tipperary; Westside Shopping Centre in Galway and Orwell Shopping Centre in Templeogue, Dublin 6W. The sale also comprised 150 apartments located next to Athlone Town Centre. The scheme itself meanwhile accounted for more than 60 per cent of the portfolio and had been valued at some €300 million during the boom.
Gorey Shopping Centre briefly comprises a single internal mall and is anchored by one of the largest Dunnes Stores in the southeast (5,686sq m/61,209sq ft) offering grocery, clothing and homeware products. The shopping centre has 22 retail units in total with three of these at first-floor level and one at basement level.
