A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Grafton St store tests market

The owners of a well-located store on Dublin’s Grafton Street are to test the strength of the rental market by inviting offers for the lease of the building.

The former La Senza lingerie shop had been rented at €650,000 per annum until the UK company went into receivership early in January. Now Douglas Newman Good Commercial is asking high-profile traders to register their interest and make a rental offer for the building, which has a larger-than-usual ground floor area of more than 216sq m (2,324sq ft). There is a further retail/storage area of almost 49sq m (527sq ft) in the basement and three upper floors.

Dame Street premises to let

A substantial retail unit on the ground floor of a high-profile building at the busy junction of South Great George’s Street and Dame Street in Dublin 2 has come on the letting market through Ben Pearson of Bogle Estates.

A rent of €125,000 is being quoted for the store which has a ground floor area of 153sq m (1,646sq ft) and virtually similar back-up space at basement level.

The classical building was for many years occupied by Burtons mens clothing company and more recently has been rented by a franchisee for Philips Electrical.

Cinema site sells for €600,000

The site of the former Classic Cinema at Harolds Cross Road in Dublin 6W has been bought by a private investor for €600,000. Wesley Rothwell of CBRE handled the sale of the plot which extends to 0.212 of a hectare (0.3 of an acre).

The vendors were Capel Developments, which is also selling the former Sunday Worldsite in the centre of Terenure village. It bought the 0.46 of a hectare site at the height of the property boom for €18.3 million. The valuation has since slipped to €5 million.

OPW to sell centre at a loss

The Office of Public Works has admitted falling into the same trap as property developers, paying over the odds for a building in the centre of Blanchardstown village in Dublin 15.

The State agency paid €1.5 million for the former AIB bank branch in 2004 and has now instructed estate agent Karl Byrne of Douglas Newman Good Commercial to look for €960,000 for it.

The original plan to use it for community services, including a driving licence centre, has now been scrapped. The 467sq m (5,026sq ft) building is to be sold in one or two lots.

Carrickmines site on market

Garvan Walsh of agents Kelly Walsh is quoting a guide price of €1.5 million for a two-acre site beside The Park Retail Park in Carrickmines, Dublin 18. The plot has commercial zoning and is likely to be of particular interest to companies planning a motor showrooms or a retail premises.

The retail park is currently attracting more than 100,000 visitors per week. The site has a profile on to the M50 junction in Carrickmines and also has frontage on to the Ballyogan road. A planned new distributor road will link the site directly with the retail complex.

Lucan restaurant for auction

Lisney is quoting €400,000 for the former Annadale Chinese Restaurant and takeaway at Celbridge Road in Lucan, west Dublin, which is to be offered for sale by auction on March 9th. The building can seat 85 diners and is located midway between the villages of Leixlip and Lucan. The restaurant ceased trading in January, 2010.

Meanwhile EuroGiant, the discount chain with more than 60 stores nationwide, has acquired additional premises at Clarehall shopping centre in north Dublin, Main Street Midleton, Westpoint shopping centre in Westport and Carton Park in Maynooth. The multiple trader is advised by Lisney.

Data centre for Profile Park

Digital Reality Trust, a leading developer of data centres, is believed to have paid in the region of €500,000 for 10 acres at Profile Park off Nangor Road in west Dublin.

The company, which is advised by CBRE, announced last week that it has secured planning permission to develop four data processing centres on the site with a total floor area of 17,929sq m (193,000sq ft).

Land in the park would have sold for well in excess of €1 million an acres before the collapse of the property market. Google is also to build a data centre in the park.