Waterford retail centre and car park offer investors blue-chip opportunities

Less than a month after the profitable City Square Shopping Centre in Waterford was offered for sale, separate owners of the basement car park in the complex have also opted to put it on the market at a guide price of €

7 million.

Des Purcell of Purcell Properties is handling the sale for a local family who are also planning to sell the Broad Street Centre, a thriving shopping and office complex fronting on to the pedestrianised Broad Street.

The shops and offices, which date from the 1980s, are expected to sell for about €6.5 million.

Investment funds pitching for City Square as well as private investors looking for a blue-chip commercial property will be interested in the car park, the largest in the southeast with no fewer than 500 spaces on the ground floor, as well as at basement levels.

Purcell Properties say it is “extremely profitable”, easy to run with low overheads and the capacity to fund significant bank borrowings.

The 1994-built shopping centre, currently producing a rental income of €1.7 million, is expected to sell for about €22.5 million.

The next owners will be able to avail of long-term plans to enhance its value by extending the shopping facilities and bringing in additional high-profile tenants. The Broad Street Centre forms almost all of one side of the pedestrianised Broad Street and is particularly popular with shoppers.

The complex is producing a rent roll of about €750,000 from 2,740 sq m (29,500 sq ft) of retail and office space.

The retail tenants include Sam McCauley Chemist, Footlocker, H Samuel and Petit Cheri, while the companies renting office space are Glanbia, Musgraves, AIB and Canada Life. Most leases have eight or nine years to run. Office tenants have the use of 18 basement car-parking spaces.

“These are among the two best commercial properties in Waterford after the City Square shopping centre,” says Des Purcell.