Shopping Centres: The well-located Parkway shopping centre on the outskirts of Limerick city is set to be transformed following the completion of its sale to the Dublin-based property developer Pat Doherty of Harcourt Developments.
The new owners are due to lodge a planning application to refurbish and extend the centre, and to broaden the appeal by providing a multiplex cinema and up to 100 apartments on site.
Doherty's company, a major player in the provincial shopping centre market, bought the Parkway centre for €55 million - €1 million less than the asking price. The fact that it was one of the few retail investments sold for less than the asking price is more a reflection of its outdated facilities than the state of the investment market, where there is still a pent-up demand for good properties.
Charlie Kenny's Clancourt Group, which owned the centre for a number of years, had concentrated its efforts on enlarging the Crescent shopping centre on the opposite side of the city.
The Parkway centre was built 21 years ago and looks its age. It was doubled in size in 1989 and has an overall floor area of 14,400sq m (155,000sq ft). Dunnes Stores operate out of the anchor store of 7,896sq m (85,000sq ft) and, though they also run a 24-hour store close by on Childers Road, they apparently have no intention of moving out of the Parkway centre. To do so would allow one of its main competitors, such as Tesco, to move in - something the large multiples are careful not to do.
Harcourt plans to strengthen the appeal of the centre by bringing in a second anchor which will occupy most of the 9,290sq m (100,000sq ft) of retail space to be added as part of the redevelopment. Other notable tenants already include 02, Ladbrokes, Burger King, Tylers, Sasha, Carphone Warehouse and Dynasty jewellers.
When it is modernised and enlarged, the new look Parkway centre is certain to trade well because of its location along one of the busiest entrances into the city and close to an ever expanding number of new homes. It should also benefit from the success of the retail park on the opposite side of the road.
Parkway is not the only centre attracting Harcourt's attention. The company is awaiting planning permission to redevelop the Galway shopping centre at a cost of about €160 million. The move is expected to greatly enhance the appeal of the centre which is in direct competition with the Eyre Square shopping centre. That complex suffers because individual shops are owned by different investors.
Harcourt also has shopping centres at Donaghmede in north Dublin; Letterkenny; Dundalk (The Long Walk) and Portlaoise.
