Retail RentsRecent rental trends at Liffey Valley suggest increases are on the cards fornearly 70 traders there, reportsJack Fagan, Property Editor
Almost 70 traders in Liffey Valley shopping centre at Quarryvale in west Dublin are facing substantial rent increases if recent rental trends at the complex are implemented at the next general rent review expected later this year.
The owners of the shopping centre on the M50 have bought in two leases and relet the premises at significantly higher rents - a move that is clearly designed to strengthen the landlord's hand when most of the reviews get underway. The move has pushed Zone A rents from an average of €1,800 per sq m to €3,200 - an increase of around 70 per cent.
A newcomer on the Irish scene, UK multiple Office Shoes will be paying a rent of €265,000 for 186 sq m (2,000 sq ft), part of the former Warner Brothers store. The rent works out on an overall basis at €1,424 per sq m.
Another UK newcomer, Ernest Jones jewellers, will be paying a rent of €340,000 for 324 sq m (3,500 sq ft) on the ground floor and mezzanine of the former Gazebo interior furnishings outlet.
Hamilton Osborne King retail specialist Bernadine Hogan said the two deals were negotiated against a background of an exceptionally high level of trading at Liffey Valley. The centre was now attracting more than 200,000 shoppers per week - over 10 million per year - and had a high level of "frequent shoppers going there up to three times per week".
The particularly strong trading pattern at the centre has, according to some experts, given the lie to the notion that a shopping centre cannot operate successfully without a conventional supermarket as an anchor. Liffey Valley is the first of a new generation of shopping centres without a supermarket though it does have a large Marks & Spencer outlet.
Like Dublin's Grafton Street, there is an extremely heavy concentration of fashion stores and virtually all of them are trading particularly well.
Liffey Valley has been greatly strengthened by its adjoining Retail Park which has a good mix of tenants. Biggest trader here B & Q has not so far managed to run as smooth an operation as it does in the UK. Its choice of a UK company to run its café franchise may explain why it was not in a position to serve a simple sandwich last Saturday at 3 p.m. Staff explained that they did not have the ingredients. They were however, able to serve two coffees at €4.20 - a price hardly in line with B & Q's cut-price strategy.
Liffey Valley itself still has enormous potential but it seems that the planners may not allow it to be expanded until the former Flood tribunal issues its findings on the controversial rezoning of Quarryvale in 1993 as a district centre with a cap of 23,225 sq m (250,000 sq ft) on its shopping element. The issue has also been complicated by the fact that Treasury Holdings is pitching to develop a town centre for Lucan/Clondalkin at Balgaddy, a short distance from Liffey Valley. Everglade Properties is promoting the development on a greenfield 38-acre site that was originally designated for more than 30 years as the future town centre for the area.
In March 2002, a proposed variation of the county council plan to upgrade the zoning of Quarryvale from district centre to a town centre was put on hold by a unanimous decision of the country council "until the findings of the Flood tribunal are available".
The development potential of Quarryvale had first been identified by Tom Gilmartin in the late 1980s before the M50 was built. His interest was subsequently acquired by the Cork developer, Owen O'Callaghan, who developed the 180-acre site with his partners, Grosvenor Estate, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, who is reputedly the fourth richest man in Britain.
