Two years after taking Tesco to court and forcing it to reopen its store in Athlone Shopping Centre, businessman Robert Neill and his other partners in Wanze Properties (Ireland) have just completed the sale of the Janelle Centre in Finglas, Dublin 11, to the same British multiple. Tesco is understood to have paid close to £4 million for the 110,000 sq ft centre which had been somewhat rundown in recent years. The new owners plan to spend around £6 million on redeveloping the 12 year old complex to provide a major supermarket and neighbourhood shopping units. It is planned to keep the present Crazy Prices store trading until the new unit is ready to open.

Tesco owned the 40,000 sq ft supermarket and Wanze had managed to buy in about 15,000 sq ft of space from tenants to allow it redevelop the centre. Another seven tenants are still in situ. Wanze bought the Janelle centre along with Athlone and Dundalk shopping centres in 1996 for over £7 million. Athlone has since been upgraded and work is to start shortly on Dundalk, where an additional 13,000 sq ft of space is to be provided.