Irish property investor Lugus Capital and London-headquartered Patron Capital have acquired Blackpool Shopping Centre in Cork. The completion of the off-market sale comes just over three months after The Irish Times reported that the partners had agreed to purchase the centre from US-based investor Varde Partners for about €49.5 million. The price paid by Lugus and Patron represents a 57 per cent discount on the €115 million Varde paid to secure ownership of the scheme a decade ago.
Varde Partners acquired Blackpool Shopping Centre for its part from Nama in 2014 as part of Project Acorn, a retail portfolio that also included Clonmel’s Showgrounds centre and Balbriggan’s Millfield Shopping Centre. While the portfolio was offered to the market at a guide price of €130 million, Varde is understood to have paid about €171.5 million to secure ownership of it in the face of competition from several parties, including a joint venture comprising Burlington Real Estate and US hedge fund Davidson Kempner. The price paid by Varde represented a 32 per cent premium on the figure sought by the then joint agents, JLL and Bannon.
At the time of its 2014 sale, Blackpool Shopping Centre and its retail park and offices were generating a total of €8 million in annual rental income from a broad range of tenants. Some €6.7 million of the rent was being paid by the scheme’s retail occupiers, with the remaining €1.3 million coming from the development’s office accommodation. Today, The Irish Times understands the overall rent roll is closer to €6 million, with €3 million of this being generated from the centre’s retail park. The other €3 million of income comprises €2 million in rents from the shopping centre and €1 million in rent from the office accommodation. In 2017, Varde tried and failed to find a buyer for the centre after offering it to the market at an ambitious guide price of €117 million.
Located on Cork’s northside, Blackpool Shopping Centre comprises about 26,870sq m (300,000sq ft) of retail and retail park space, along with 10,080sq m (108,513sq ft) of offices and about 1,800 car-parking spaces.
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The Retail Park element is anchored by Woodies, Aldi, Boots and Maxi Zoo. The shopping centre comprises more than 120,000sq ft of retail and office space, plus a 75,000sq ft anchor unit owned by Dunnes Stores. Retailers in the centre include New Look, McDonald’s, Peter Mark, Vodafone, Claire’s Accessories, Boyle Sports, McCauley Pharmacy and Holland & Barrett.
