Group led by Hines to sell Liffey Valley Shopping Centre

A group led by US real estate investor Hines plans to sell a Dublin shopping centre and adjacent land for about €600 million, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The venture, including the Grosvenor Group and HSBC Alternative Investments, hired Eastdil to broker the sale of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in the west of the city, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

An executive at Eastdil and a spokeswoman for the venture declined to comment.

Grosvenor, owned by the Duke of Westminster’s family trusts, was one of the original developers of the mall.

The HSBC unit and Houston-based Hines bought a 73 per cent stake in the property from Aviva Investors for €250 million in 2014.

Growing economy

International investors are vying to buy up Dublin shopping malls as they seek to tap into one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.

Blackstone purchased the Blanchardstown Centre for about €950 million this year and a venture between Hammerson and Allianz bought the Dundrum Town Centre and the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords.

Liffey Valley has a rent roll of around €30 million from more than 80 stores including Marks & Spencer, Dunnes Stores, Next, Boots and the 3,500-seater Vue Cinema.

HSBC Alternative Investments are by far the largest shareholders in the centre having paid €253 million alongside co-owner Hines for a 72.8 per cent stake more than two years ago. The remaining shareholding is held by the UK property giant Grosvenor Estates.

The Liffey Valley rent roll is to get a further boost later this year when Penneys begin trading from a new 4,645sq m (50,000sq ft) anchor store alongside six new restaurants.

The Penneys store, expected to bring in a rent of close to €1 million per annum, forms part of an ongoing €26 million extension – the first significant retail expansion in the Dublin area since the property crash nine years ago.

The new three-storey building will add 10,500sq m to the original centre, bringing the overall floor area up to about 57,100sq m (614,612sq ft). Bloomberg