Sports Direct to open for business at Athlone Towncentre

Sports Direct is to open for business at Athlone Towncentre later this year.

The company has agreed a deal to occupy 19,000sq ft on the ground floor of the scheme.

The new store will see the amalgamation of five existing units and a corresponding investment of €1 million which is being funded and undertaken by the landlord. Two of the scheme’s existing occupiers – Quiz and Art & Hobby – will relocate within the centre to facilitate the delivery of Sport Direct’s new anchor store.

Athlone Towncentre’s joint letting agents, Cushman & Wakefield and Bannon said: “The addition of Sports Direct to the retail mix will increase footfall and make a significant contribution to the local economy.

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“Our ambition from the start has been for Athlone Towncentre to become the leading shopping destination in the region. We believe that’s a reason that major Irish and international brands including Sports Direct, River Island, H+M, Zara, M&S, Next, TK Maxx and Eason have chosen to locate there.”

Athlone Towncentre, which opened for business in 2007, is the largest shopping centre in the Midlands. Located on Mardyke Street and within a short distance of the M6 (Dublin to Galway) motorway, it comprises 180,000sq ft of retail space along with 1,100 underground carparking spaces.

The scheme is owned by Davidson Kempner. The US-headquartered investment group acquired the centre 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 a major stake in MacDonagh Junction shopping centre in Kilkenny; Tipp Town Centre in Tipperary; Westside Shopping Centre in Galway, Gorey Shopping Centre in Wexford, and Orwell Shopping Centre in Templeogue, Dublin 6W.

The sale also comprised 150 apartments located next to Athlone Town Centre.

Davidson Kempner sold Gorey Shopping Centre to a private pension syndicate for €9.35 million last September.