Roll up for city plaza lot: Paul Street shopping centre for sale for €1.95m

Anchor store Tesco is not included in the sale, nor is the multistorey carpark

Paul Street Shopping Centre, Cork City, is for sale for €1.95m. The sale does not include anchor store Tesco or the adjoining multistorey carpark

PAUL Street Shopping Centre in Cork City is on the market for just under €2m, just three years after it was sold off-market by O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) to Dublin-based company, Merrycane Ltd.

The vendor this time is Riga Unlimited Company, a fund management company with the same Fitzwilliam Square address as Merrycane Ltd, and a shared director, Brian Linnane. Brian O’Callaghan of OCP was formerly a director with Riga.

Aerial shot of Paul Street Shopping Centre

The sale includes 19 independent retail units, with a total of 14 tenants, within a covered mall area, as well as the large outdoor square, Rory Gallagher Plaza, in front of the shopping centre. It does not include the store owned by anchor tenant Tesco or the 730-space multi-storey carpark, owned by Cork City Council.

None of the tenants in the 19 units will be affected by the sale. Tenants include Lee Travel, Bennetts Shoe Repair, Twilight News, phone shops and a cafe. Five units are vacant.

Rory Gallagher Place, Paul Street Picture: Larry Cummins

Current annual rent is €311,500, with a net operating income (NOI) of €283,222pa. The net initial yield is 13.2% (on the NOI) and the net internal retail area is approximately 13,793 sq ft, primarily over the ground floor.

Real estate company BidX1 is handling the €1.95m sale and agent Nana Collins said interest is strong.

“It’s quite a busy lot, people are keen to see the legals and they are now fully available on our website (bidx1.com),” she said.

Among those looking are small private investors, small development companies and small asset management companies.

Ms Collins said local interest “is good” but it’s too soon for offers.

Paul Street is the second Cork shopping centre to be put up for sale in recent times. In January, Cushman and Wakefield sold the much larger Douglas Village Shopping Centre for €23m to Urban Green Private, led by Cork businessman Tom Coughlan.

Cushman & Wakefield are also selling shopping street Opera Lane, another OCP development, close to Paul Street, with a €26.75m price tag.

Opera Lane Picture: Denis Minihane

Ms Collins said Paul Street Shopping Centre occupies a “high-profile site in the heart of Cork City”, just 100m from St Patrick’s Street, with numerous access points, such as French Church Street and Carey’s Lane.

Moreover, having Tesco as the anchor draws “a consistent footfall” through the centre, while there’s easy access for shoppers from the multi-storey car park..

Ms Collins said the shopping centre is in good enough shape, if a bit dated, and representsd “a unique opportunity to repurpose and modernise the shopping centre, while incorporating the front outside square into the retail offering”.

Rory Gallagher Place

There was scope too to increase rental income, by filling the five vacant units.

Paul Street Shopping Centre pre-dates OCP’s Merchants Quay. It opened to shoppers in 1985, and was seen by then city manager, Joe McHugh, as key to the urban regeneration of a part of the city in need of revitalisation, physically, socially and economically.

DETAILS: Nana Collins, [e-mail], 0868773522