Seven more retail units at The Square in Tallaght are on the market - with a price tag of €23 million - following last week's announcement by Quinlan Private that it is selling 68 units in the centre.
The latest units are being sold by a private investor through Jones Lang LaSalle and produce a combined annual rent of €745,000 at present. All the units are held on long leases averaging 33 years from the early 1990s and two rent reviews are due this year.
"These units are an excellent investment but they also have a bonus for potential purchasers because the buyer will have a 6 per cent share in the extension of The Square which is about to get underway later this year," says Max Reilly of Jones Lang LaSalle.
The sale is by private treaty and Reilly says he expects it to go to best bids in mid-July. The tenants include Bank of Scotland, Vision Express, DNG and Vero Moda, and the units range in size from 25sq m (264sq ft) to 251sq m (704sq ft).
Quinlan Private, one of the original investors in The Square when it opened in 1990, has put its portfolio on the market as one lot or five separate lots. Its portfolio has an annual income of €10 million and the sale is expected to make €350 million.
The latest units to go on sale, with their 6 per cent share in the development of The Square, may give one of the major shareholders in the extension a majority holding. The Quinlan portfolio is believed to come with a substantial share in the development and the company which holds the licence to extend the centre is understood to have a 45 per cent share in it. The company, Alburn, is owned by the solicitor and property developer Noel Smith.
The shopping centre covers seven acres and there is a further 20 acres available for development around it: planning permission has been granted for a 75,000sq m (807,293sq ft) extension and a fourth phase could add 90,000sq m (1.066 million sq ft).
Several other major property developers - including Liam Carroll, Joe O'Reilly, Bernard McNamara, and the McCormack family, who are already large investors in The Square - are likely to consider both sales.
