AMID signs of a retail rebound on Cork City’s main shopping thoroughfare, further moves are afoot on adjoining side streets with the arrival to market of the FatFace premises on Princes Street with a guide price of €1.25m.
Just off St Patrick Street and adjacent to the iconic English Market, No 47 Princes Street is being sold with its lifestyle clothing tenant in place for another seven years, and with a current rental income of €95,000 per annum.
Next door, the Irish Life-owned premises that formerly housed fashion retailer Oasis, and is currently under short term occupancy as a discount clothing store, is also on the market.
Cearbhall Behan of Behan, Irwin & Gosling is the selling agent for No 47 and he describes it as “an exceptional retail investment” at a time when nearby St Patrick Street is enjoying a “strong resurgence”.
That resurgence includes the imminent arrival of a number of high profile established retailers including upmarket UK footwear brand Dune, to Irish Life-owned No 38 St Patrick Street, formerly occupied by Vision Express, as well as confirmation that The North Face, outdoor clothing and equipment specialists, are due to set up shop shortly at No 39, under Tim Deasy, holder of the whole-of-Ireland Timberland franchise, who has taken a 10-year-lease on the 7,400 sq ft building. It’s expected to open at the end of next month.
James Quinlan of Bannon Commercial Properties, who acted for Mr Deasy in The North Face deal, is also the agent looking after the former Oasis premises where he has had an offer that could lead to a long term let, possibly by the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.
Both Bannon Commercial Properties and Savills are due to bring another St Patrick Street premises to market shortly, No 101, the former Dorothy Perkins/Evans store, a clothing brand that was part of Philip Green’s UK-based Aracadia Group, which went belly up in November 2020. Mr Quinlan said it was good to see that some of the new arrivals to St Patrick Street are international (such as The North Face, a US brand), rather than offshoots of UK multiples, on which he said there had been “an over-reliance”. Grafton Street, one of Dublin’s main shopping streets, has also gained some international tenants recently, including Dutch company Lego and Canada Goose (high end outdoor clothing company, headquartered in Toronto).
Back on St Patrick Street, fast-fashion retailer Penneys is expanding, having acquired an entire block, while the next block, where empty store fronts have been a feature, is about to be filled shortly.
The block, bookended at one end by a former Monsoon store (ground floor of the former Victoria Hotel)and at the other end by Permanent TSB, will shortly be fully tenanted at ground floor level, with Eason just in at No 35-36, jewellery retailer Pandora at No 37, Dune due to appear at No 38, The North Face due to open on October 30 at No 39 and PTSB at Nos 40/41.
Bookseller and stationer Eason has relocated from Nos 113-115 St Patrick Street, which had been its flagship Cork City store for more than 30 years. The UK-based Fraser Group (formerly known as Sports Direct), who bought the iconic Eason store for €6.5m, plan to open a Flannels (part of House of Fraser) fashion outlet at the 22,000 sq ft premises early next year. The group has already opened a Sports Direct outlet in Mahon Point on the upper mall, with House of Fraser due to move into the lower mall early in 2023, filling the void left by the departure of Debenhams from its 75,000 sq ft Mahon Point premises in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Debenhams also departed from St Patrick Street, as the pandemic’s biggest retail casualty in the city, and was recently put up for sale for €20m. It’s attracting strong investor/developer interest, with agents Cushman & Wakefield confirming that they have received very active enquiries from both local and national developer, as well as investors.
Uses being posited for the Debenhams building’s redevelopment span retail, leisure and a range of accommodation, including possibly apartments, hotel and even student accommodation at the back end/Maylor Street section.
Mr Behan said the future sale of Debenhams “will bring a single or multiple occupiers to the city centre as well. which will generate additional footfall” – which will be a bonus for anyone on or near main street, such as FatFace.
Accommodation at the FatFace premises extends to 1,554 sq ft of ground floor retail; a 1,647 sq ft stock room on the first floor and a staff area on the second floor measuring 1,496 sq ft.
FatFace signed a 10-year lease on No 47 Princes Street on April 9, 2019, with a break option at the end of year five. The building has a C3 energy rating, extensive street frontage and large display windows. Other nearby retailers include Ann Summers, Cummins Sport, Holland & Barrett and Penneys, as well as Eason-owned Dubray Books who opened on St Patrick Street late last year.
More details on No 47 Princes Street: BIG property Tel: 0214270007 Email:info@bigproperty.ie
