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.