Charleville’s €20m shopping centre available for knockdown €1.9m

An eight-year-old shopping centre in Charleville, Co Cork, with an unusually high vacancy rate – 15 of the 17 retail units have never traded – is to be offered for sale at a knockdown price of €1.9 million, which is a long way from the €20 million spent on developing it.

Charleville Town Centre was completed just before the property crash by Barry Boland of BWP Charleville Ltd with funds provided by IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank). The centre has been struggling ever since and for the second time is to be offered for sale on the instructions of receiver Ken Fennell of Deloitte. The anchor tenant, Dunnes Stores, along with Elverys Sports, own their own stores and will not be included in the sale. The only other business continuing to trade, Lloyds Pharmacy, is paying a rent of €180,000 under a lease which has another 16 years to run.

Car park

The remaining units, all of them vacant, extend to 3,230 sq m (34,767 sq ft) and include a bar/restaurant with a courtyard, a creche also with courtyard and a medical centre as well as nine office units ranging in size from 60 to 264 sq m (650 to 2,582 sq ft).

The facilities also includes as duplex apartment and a four-storey car park with 450 spaces.

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Margaret Kelleher of Lisney's Cork office, who is handling the sale, said a €1.9 million selling price would show a net initial yield of 9 per cent with scope to increase the returns through letting the various units.

They would also consider separate offers for the shopping centre and Lloyds pharmacy. She said she expected the centre to appeal to traders interested in opening new outlets as well as discount retailers offering reduced rents.