€1m ‘Pana’ property swoop

The investment arm of the Davy Group has made a further retail swoop on Cork city’s Patrick Street, having bought the Moderne last year for circa €4-5 million in an off-market deal.

The 15,000 sq ft Moderne is currently being refurbished and will be handed over to new occupiers SuperDry at the end of next week, to start fit-out. Details of an occupier for the rear portion of the Moderne on French Church Street have yet to be confirmed. Now, it is understood that Davy Private is paying close to €1 million for No 85 Patrick Street, which previously had been occupied for a number of years by the Body Shop. The building’s owners accepted a surrender of the Body Shop lease at 85 Patrick Street over a year ago, and Body Shop has since relocated to a premises at 82/83 Oliver Plunkett Street.

No 85 is at the corner of Patrick Street and Carey’s Lane, and it’s understood that Davy also has advanced or even completed plans to acquire the adjacent Nos 83 and 84 Patrick Street.

No 83, the former Burkleys Jewellers, is currently vacant, and the rather more elegant red-brick facaded No 84 is held on a long lease by coffee house Gloria Jeans.

The corner trio have an extremely high footfall at a pivotal part of Patrick Street, facing Princes Street, acting as a feeder into Careys Lane and the pedestrianised French Church Street/Huguenot Quarter, and when SuperDry are in occupation, there’ll be even more of an uplift and a ‘young shoppers’ connection to the Opera Lane development.

Also close by is Golden Discs, trading in the former HMV outlet in the old Pavilion Cinema. While Nos 83, 84 and 85 Patrick Street have extreme proximity to the old Pavilion’s very large footprint, it’s not thought that the trio’s purchase swoop by Davy forms any larger site assembly other than acquiring profile buildings on Patrick Street, and in the case of No 85, at a sub-€1m sum.

Sharon Walsh of HWBC in Dublin, acted for the vendors in the off-market sale, jointly with Lisney, while Leigh Hegarty of Savills acted for purchasers Davy in a deal now in its final throes of completion.

It marks a further step in the reversal of fortunes on Cork city’s prime retail boulevard Patrick Street, where a number of units vacated during the downturn are now set for new occupiers.

Across the street, Holland and Barratt are about to move into the former Wallis building, moving out of Merchants Quay, which is due a significant internal layout and mall configuration with new facade to Patrick Street, with planning permission just approved for changes this week by Cork City Council (see planning notes p19).

And, accessories shop Hairspray has this month moved into the former Sony shop on Patrick Street, in a deal done by Lisney, while Pandora is set to move to the former Swamp fashion building facing Opera Lane very shortly, in a Savills deal.

A number of other moves on Patrick Street are also set to follow as Penneys/Primark prepares to lodge planning for the proposed doubling of its Patrick Street premises, having successfully embarked on a considerable buying spree of tens of millions of euros on Patrick Street/Cook Street and Oliver Plunkett Street. The retail giant is set to meet with traders in August to outline plans for the very significant expansion, while planning is still awaited for the Capitol cinema site, which will be the last and much-needed key retail boost for Patrick Street.

DETAILS

: HWBC 01- 775 0500, Savills: 0214271371, Lisney 021-4275079