Greenlight for Goldman Sachs to buy Blanchardstown Shopping Centre     

The sale includes the main retail centre, the nearby retail parks, outdoor shops, and a five-storey office building

People queue outside Krispy Kreme’s store in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre — the second largest mall in Ireland. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.

The acquisition of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre — the second largest mall in Ireland — by Wall Street investment giant  Goldman Sachs has got the green light from the Irish competition watchdog.

Goldman Sachs is buying the centre and an adjacent office block from another US fund, Blackstone, which bought it for around €1bn in 2016, with part of the financing of that deal having been provided by Goldman Sachs.  

After buying Bridgewater mall in Arklow around four years ago, Blanchardstown is the second major purchase by the Wall Street investment bank of a shopping centre in Ireland. 

Goldman Sachs is still better known here as a buyer of Irish tracker mortgage books.  

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission said the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre includes the main retail centre, the nearby retail parks, outdoor shops, and a five-storey office building.

The purchase comes at a tough time for the shop owners who rent from the landlord owners like Goldman Sachs, as the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated a move to online purchases. 

The lockdowns across Europe have meant examinership for large retail groups, including Arcadia which owns the Topman and Miss Selfridge chains and others, as well as the closure of Debenhams.  

The shares in rival retail landlord Hammerson, which owns half of Dundrum Shopping Centre, which, at 140,000 sq m, is Ireland's largest, have slid by more than 80% from a year ago.  

Hammerson also owns Brent Cross in London, Birmingham's Bullring, and has significant retail centres in Paris and Barcelona. 

In Ireland, Hammerson also owns half of the Swords Pavilions and the Ilac Centre in Dublin city centre, and controls the nearby 1916 battlefield site, and has a significant minority stake in the Kildare Village, and at the start of the year completed the sale of the Abbey Retail Park in Belfast.