Aldi unit hard to discount as Ballincollig investment

A retail unit acquired in 1999 as the second ever Aldi Irish store is up for sale by tender as an investment: it’s the anchor tenant in the Westside Retail Park, Ballincollig in Cork, on a lease set to run until 2024.

The Aldi store generates an annual rent of €385,000, and agents Eoin Ryan and Peter O’Flynn of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald give a guide price of €2.75 million, indicating a net initial yield of 13.4%. Considerable interest is expected.

Now with over 112 Irish stores (and with an Aldi currently being fitted out in the ground floor of the Elysian tower in Cork city,) this investment offer is one of Aldi’s earliest here. The German retaileropened three Irish stores back in 1999, with Ballincollig early in its sights and site acquisition: it was subsequently joined by a second Aldi store in Ballincollig, by a Lidl, as well as a Dunnes Stores in the redeveloped Ballincollig Town Centre - next door to where a giant Tesco Extra opens tomorrow, also on the former barracks site redeveloped by O’Flynn Constructions.