Hamilton Osborne King in Belfast has been retained as letting agents for the former C&A department store site, which holds a key position in Donegall Place, Belfast's primary shopping street. The building was undergoing redevelopment when C&A's owners, the Brenninkmeyer family, decided to close all 109 of their British and Irish stores. It has since been demolished and the site excavated to make a new basement level. It is beside Marks & Spencer on the busiest stretch of Donegall Place.
The Brenninkmeyer's UK property arm, Redevco, which manages all their properties, had been engaged in the project to redevelop and re-open the city centre store in Belfast, either as one or two shops. When developed, the new building will have some 80,000 sq ft of floor space. It will have 88 feet of frontage on to Donegall Place and has access on to Calender Street. HOK anticipates that the new store, or stores, will have a rental of around £1.5 million to £1.6 million sterling and the letting is likely to create a record Zone A rental level in the city. The current rental record of £215 was set at the Footlocker shop, a few doors down Donegall Place earlier this year.
The C&A decision to dispose of its properties in the UK and Ireland, including its unit at Liffey Valley, in west Dublin, came as a shock to its 4,800 staff. The company, which is renowned for its secretive approach to business, had not even informed its UK property-holding arm Redevco, which had earlier this year announced plans for the compete refurbishment of the Belfast city centre store.
All C&A's UK properties are held by Redevco and then leased under an umbrella arrangement to the C&A operating company. There were no individual leases on stores and the agreement reflected the UK convention of five-yearly rent reviews.
It is reported that the Brenninkmeyer family became disillusioned with their hugely unprofitable UK retail chain, which is understood to have accumulated huge losses over the past five years. But the company is reported to be keen to remain involved in the retail property market.
Redevco's managing director, Alastair Gordon, said his brief was to maintain - and if anything grow - the £650 million UK portfolio. "From our point of view as a landlord, we've lost our biggest tenant and we need to replace that income flow."
Mr Gordon said the Brenninkmeyers are committed to holding the stores for the long term. The UK property holding represents only around 20 per cent of the family's total European portfolio of 600 properties.
The Liffey Valley store, like C&A's other new stores in the MetroCentre and Meadowhall in England, is held on a long lease and it is expected Redevco will be engaged in leasehold talks. Redevco has an in-house design team and had been developing the Donegall Place store to its own plans. Mr Brown said the company will consider investing in development opportunities outside their existing portfolio.
