Mango to start overhaul of former Quills store in Cork City centre

The Spanish fashion brand is hoping to have the store open after the summer, creating 10 jobs

The former Quills store, vacant since 2014, is getting a Mediterranean-style makeover in preparation for the arrival of Spanish fashion brand Mango Picture: Cian O'Regan.

SPANISH fashion retail giant Mango is set to begin work next week on transforming a long-vacant city centre eyesore into a breezy Mediterranean-style outlet as the former Quills store undergoes a major makeover.

Mango has confirmed to the Irish Examiner that work will begin at the end of May on the Savoy-adjoining premises on St Patrick's Street, and that the store is scheduled to open after the summer, with 10 jobs created. The premises has been vacant since Quills shut up shop in 2014. It was bought the following year for €2m by Clarendon Properties, owners of the Savoy. Mango has taken a 10-year lease on the property, with a five-year breakout clause, which includes a penalty for early exit.

The 360 sq m store will stock the Mango ‘Woman’’ line exclusively and will be modelled on a Mediterranean-inspired store concept, ‘New Med’, which is the same look used in the ongoing rollout of new Mango stores across the USA, including a flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

A spokesperson for Mango said “sustainability and architectural integration are key in this new design,which conceives the Mango store as a Mediterranean home with different rooms in which warm tones and neutral colors predominate, combined with traditional, artisanal, sustainable and natural materials, such as ceramic, tuff, wood, marble, sparto grass and leather”.

Mango flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

The Barcelona-headquartered chain previously had a store in another part of St Patrick's Street, but has been gone 15 years, following a failed franchise operation. This time, the outlet will be company-run.

The hint of summer that Mango brings is another sign that the dark retail clouds which have hung over St Patrick's Street since the beginning of the pandemic may finally be starting to recede, with the biggest boost coming this week following the news that city centre flagship store Debenhams has finally been sold - for a rumoured c€12m to Elverys. The Irish sports retailer is planning to occupy upto 30% of the 150,000 sq ft building and lease out the remaining space to a mix of fashion and sports retails, supermarket, office space and hospitality. The new Elverys' store is planning to open “in late 2023”, more than three years after Debenhams closed in April 2020, dealing a major blow to the high street.

Meanwhile, directly across the road, work is well underway on transforming the former 22,000 sq ft Eason building into upmarket fashion brand Flannels, one of several brands owned by the Mike Ashley-owned Fraser Group, formerly Sports Direct International (also an early bidder on the Debenhams’ property).

A spokesperson has told the Irish Examiner the store will be open “in the summer”.

Eason itself has relocated to a smaller premises at No 36 St Patrick’s Street, to what used to be the ground floor of the Victoria Hotel, alongside other new kids on the block, UK footwear brand Dune and outdoor wear specialists The North Face. At the start of the next block, No 42 St Patrick’s Street, global doughnut brand Krispy Kreme has opened in recent weeks, having taken out a 10-year lease on the former Porter newsagents’ premises.

There’s more new blood at No 79, where gift shop Seasons of Ireland has signed a 10-year lease at a former Carphone Warehouse store.

Also in the pipeline is the planned expansion of Penneys/Primark, owners of an entire block of St Patrick's Street, who are seeking to add 17,000 sq ft of retail space to the existing 37,000sq ft. Those plans have been delayed by an appeal to An Bord Pleanála.

Once Mango and Flannels open, the occupancy rate on the main street will rise from 69% at the end of Q1 2023 to 74%, according to Savills commercial agency director, Peter O'Meara. This will jump again when Elverys open at the former Debenhams.