Lidl follows Aldi to Wilton

AS the Nama sale of Wilton Shopping Centre inches forward, discount retailer Lidl is about to seek planning permission to join Aldi in the same Cork City western suburb.

Lidl’s just-acquired €2m-plus site, a former Esso filling station, is directly across the Bishopstown Road from an Aldi that is close to completion. Coincidentally, that Aldi is also on a one-time garage/filling station site previously occupied by Topaz and Wilton Motors/Renault. The two German discounters will now go face-to-face, across the busy Wilton end of the Bishopstown Road, just 100 metres from the CUH and Wilton Shopping Centre entrances, with Wilton anchored by a giant Tesco, and Penneys.

The lucrative Wilton Shopping Centre, which had been acquired by the developer, Joe O’Donovan, in the 2000s, forms part of Nama’s Project Hazel, along with the 200,000 sq ft Drogheda Retail Park and Galway Shopping Centre (with Tesco, Penneys and Dealz,) and the trio have been valued, pre-formal launch, at circa €120m, by Dublin agents, Bannon.

Now, in advance of moves on Project Hazel, Lidl has just secured the former Esso filling station, after competitive bidding, paying well over the €1.3m guide, via estate agent, Rob Coughlan, of Cohalan Downing, for the prime and high-profile 1.1-acre site.

Mr Coughlan said he could not confirm or deny the purchaser’s identity, only that a deal had been done. But, other sources have confirmed the purchaser is Lidl, and that the sale is likely to have fetched €2m-plus, given the level of rival bids for such a key plot. The site consists of a decades’ old Esso station and two now-derelict bungalows, by the CUH campus. The site was sold by Esso in the 2000s, via CBRE, with a proviso that it could not be used as a filling station: this put a Tesco filling station interest out of the frame. When the larger Wilton site was assembled by the 3G Partnership/Kelleher family (who had redeveloped the Bishopstown Bar and bought up other development sites locally), it was offered in 2006 at €15m, aimed at medical centre/co-location hospital uses, but didn’t sell.

Used in latter years as a car-wash and as a coffee shop next to the CUH campus, the 1.1 acres went to market in March, via Cohalan Downing, for receiver, David Swinburne, of KPMG. Zoning is ‘district centre’, “to provide for and/or improve district centres as mixed-use centres, with a primary retail function, which also act as a focus for a range of services”.

Planning permission is expected to be sought shortly for the site, and issues to be addressed will be similar to those faced by Aldi, just across the road, concerning access/egress onto such a busy, multi-lane road. It’s reckoned that Aldi paid circa €3m for their Wilton site.

Details

: Cohalan Downing, 021-4277717