Opportunity for growth in garden centre

The highly successful National Garden Exhibition Centre at Kilquade, Co Wicklow, is expected to appeal both to investors and owner-traders when it is offered for sale this week at €1,495,000 through joint agents DTZ Sherry FitzGerald and Sherry FitzGerald.

The complex is prominently located just off the N11 in north county Wicklow, a short distance from Bray and Greystones.

The exhibition centre is a well-established brand with obvious potential to grow and develop the business even further.

The centre extends to 1.78 hectares (4.4 acres) and includes 20 individually designed exhibition show gardens as well as a nursery display area full of external plants, shrubs, trees and ancillary fittings such as gravel walkways and water features.

A timber-framed pagoda with a floor area of over 194sq m (2,041sq ft) includes a garden centre shop, office and restaurant/coffee shop.

There is also a detached toilet block and another prefabricated retail unit as well as a patio centre and polytunnel.

Detached bungalow The facility is generating a rental income of €115,000 from two tenants, Garden World and Kilquade Patio/Paving Centre. The patio company is also occupying a four-bedroom detached bungalow on site under a licence agreement.

Gordon Lennox of Sherry FitzGerald says he believes there will be a strong appetite for the garden exhibition centre because of its strategic location along the N11/M11 corridor at the gateway to the "garden county".

Its accessibility to the catchment areas of south Dublin and north Wicklow is also an asset.