RetailMarket: Three years after paying some €500,000 for a lease on Grafton Street - and having spent around €1m in the interim on rent for the office block - the EBS has decided not to open a retail unit there, writes Jack Fagan
The EBS Building Society has changed its mind about moving its main city centre retail office to Dublin's Grafton Street.
Three years after paying around €500,000 for the lease of the former TSB office block near the bottom of Grafton Street, the society has instead decided to move its Westmoreland Street front office operation across the Liffey to 36 Upper Liffey Street.
Four years ago the EBS relocated its head office staff to Burlington Road in Ballsbridge after selling the Westmoreland Street building to businessman Frank O'Kane for €12 million.
Apart from the hefty key money paid for the former banking hall at 114 Grafton Street, the EBS has also spent around €1 million over almost three and a half years on rent - even though it has never occupied the premises. It has also had to take responsibility for four overhead floors of offices which were originally let to two outside companies.
One of the floors has apparently been unused since National Mortgage Services moved out almost three years ago. Ticketline is renting three other floors.
The EBS has also been accountable for the adjoining Spar shop which has been sub-let at €224,204 per annum.
The decision by the EBS not to open on Grafton Street is thought to stem from the fact that the building is in need of significant repairs. A tenant is normally responsible for maintenance under the standard full repairing and insuring lease. Apart altogether from the internal work that will have to be carried out, part of the listed exterior has been covered in graffiti, making it an eyesore on Dublin's principal high street.
A spokesman for the EBS did not wish to comment on the matter.
Irish Life & Permanent, the owners of the building, is currently in negotiations to take back the lease of the premises. It is likely to be looking for a substantial reverse premium before carrying out the repairs and putting it back on the letting market. Irish Permanent is unlikely to move into the vacant premises having moved off the street a few years ago.
Although EBS owns the two-storey building at the junction of Upper Liffey Street and Middle Abbey Street - where the new front office operation is to be based from January - the move is all the more surprising because the society closed down the branch office there several years ago. Both Upper and Lower Liffey Street have had mixed fortunes as a shopping location in recent years.
