GERMAN discount store Aldi is to open an anchor store at a beleaguered mixed use development in Sandyford, Dublin 18. It is the first major letting at The Boulevard @Rockbrook which is now being run by Pearse Farrell of Farrell Grant Sparks since developer John Fleming’s Sipter company went into receivership.
The arrival of Aldi this spring will mark a breakthrough for the planned new town centre which will eventually have 44,000sq m (473,616sq ft) of shopping with apartments overhead. The site also includes a partially-built office block. The development is located beside the Beacon South Quarter where the tenants include Dunnes Stores.
Agent Savills is currently marketing 10 futher shops ranging in size from 50-1,200sq m (538-12,917sq ft) alongside the proposed Aldi store. Although Aldi has 12 outlets in Dublin, it has only two other stores in south Dublin – at Nutgrove in Rathfarnham and Rathmines. The company owns virtually all its stores but at Sandyford it will be paying a rent of around €600,000 for a unit of 1,904sq m (20,500sq ft). It will be one of the largest of the 70 stores it operates in Ireland. It will also have the advantage of being located beside two Luas stops, Stillorgan and Sandyford.
Darragh Cronin of Savills, who handled the letting for Farrell Grant Sparks, said the arrival of Aldi along with other pending lettings would act as a catalyst to continue with the phased delivery of what was an excellent mixed use scheme.
Around 300 of the 1,300 apartment planned for the site have been completed. Less than 100 of them were sold – some two-beds for as much as €500,000 – and about 100 more have been leased by the receiver.
The Fleming group of companies has debts of more than €1 billion. It bought the 11.3-acre Rockbrook site at the peak of the property market for €245 million. Site values have collapsed since then and in some cases are down by more than 50 per cent.
Mr Fleming was one of the most prolific developers in Munster. He developed a number of hotels including the lodge and spa at Inchydoney in west Cork, the Radisson Hotel in Limerick and the Sheraton hotel and golf resort at Fota Island in Cork.
