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

Side up with Abercrombie

WITH ABERCROMBIE & Fitch fitting out its first Dublin store opposite the Bank of Ireland at College Green in preparation for a September opening, agent Savills is launching a marketing campaign to find a suitable tenant for the store next door at 35 College Green.

The unit – on the Grafton Street side of A&F – is considerably larger than usual in the area with a floor space of 165sq m (1,776sq ft) at street level and a further 45sq m (484sq ft)of storage space overhead.

Darragh Cronin of Savills is quoting a rent of €200,000 for the shop which is currently rented to a highly successful Navan music business on a short-term basis.

Smoothie operator for Ilac Centre

Maui Wowi, the Hawaiian coffee and smoothie chain, is to open its first European outlet later this month at the Ilac Centre in Dublin. The business will be located in a 20sq m (215sq ft) kiosk beside the lifts serving the car park.

Businessman Paul Hickey has acquired the franchise for Ireland and plans to roll out 25 to 30 outlets over the next three years. The franchise can be run from kiosks, mobile “K” carts or the conventional cafe outlets.

Hickey has more than 20 years business experience, having worked with Hilton Hotels in the US, Jurys Hotel and Campbell Bewley Group in Dublin. His most recent executive job was with Rentokil Initial.

Hickey said he is now seeking other trading opportunities for the coffee and smoothie chain, some with other franchisees and others to be run by his company.

Five new tenants for the Marshes

The Marshes shopping centre in Dundalk has attracted five additional tenants. Discount retailer Euro Giant has leased a store of 873sq m (9,396sq ft) at a rent in the region of €175,000, according to letting agents Bannon and BTW Shiells.

Fashion group Bestseller is to trade out of two units with their Jack Jones brand occupying 155 sq m (1,672sq ft) and Name It moving into a shop of 107sq m (1,152sq ft). In both cases, the trader will pay a base rent and a percentage of turnover.

Also moving in is Peter Mark, which was previously based in the town centre and will now have a salon extending to 158sq m (1,700 sq ft). Elsewhere eMobile will be paying about €30,000 per annum for a store measuring 70 sq m (758 sq ft).

New lease agreements have rental value of €2.3 million

TREASURY HOLDINGS is continuing to maximise returns from its extensive Irish property portfolio.

With an increased level of interest in many of its office, retail and residential properties, the company has just reported new lease agreements with a rental value of more than €2.3 million per annum in the first three months of the year. This has brought the overall occupancy rate in the portfolio to about 90 per cent.

Tesco, one of the anchor tenants at Stillorgan shopping centre, has extended the lease on its 1,858sq m (20,000sq ft) supermarket for another 10 years. Retail units let in the centre accounted for almost 3,7156sq m (40,000sq ft).

Meanwhile, social media experts LinkedIn has rented 2,221sq m (21,548sq ft) on two further floors at Wilton Plaza.

Treasury also managed to rent 29 apartments on its various sites in the city.

John Bruder, managing director of Treasury Holdings, said the recent transactions were further evidence of growing confidence in the property market and the strength of its portfolio.

The activity during the first three months mirrored what had been happening in the past 12 months. In fact, the past 12 months had been very active with deals secured reaching almost 55,742sq m (600,000sq ft).

Mr Bruder said the level of inquiries year on year had remained steady, with the commercial office market seeing significant growth in the number of inquiries.

"This shows that there is interest out there, particularly among the big technology companies and retailers. Our focus will continue tobe on turning those inquiries into deals," he said.

Lower take-up as demand drops

THE TAKE-UP of industrial space in Dublin in the first three months of the year was 16 per cent lower than in the same quarter in 2011, according to a new report from CBRE. However, the level of transactional activity was on a par with Q4 in 2011.

The report showed that take up this year has reached almost 33,000 sq m (355,209sq ft). Only a handful of sales were completed, accounting for just 32 per cent of overall activity.