IN SHORT

A roundup of the week's other commercial property stories in brief:

Ben Dunne gym for Carlow

Ben Dunne has received planning permission for a gym in Barrow Valley Retail Park, Carlow which is expected to cost around €9 million. The retail park's anchor tenant, Dunnes Stores, last week opened a 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) extension to its store. The move will add to Mr Dunnes three fitness centres in Dublin and follows his recent purchase of another leisure centre site at the former Presentation College playing fields in Glasthule, Co Dublin. The Carlow fitness centre will be in a 3,065sq m (32,991sq ft) unit at the park.

Tenants at Barrow Valley Retail Park also include 4Home Superstore, Lifestyle Sports and Talbot Hotel. "There are still a few units available to rent, ranging in size from 500sq m to 2,500sq m, says George Ross of Jones Lang LaSalle which represents the landlords along with Sherry FitzGerald Haythornthwaite.

16,000 rent for industrial

A well located light industrial building in Charvey Lane Industrial Estate in Rathnew, Co Wicklow, has come on the letting market through local agent Dooley Poynton. The agency is quoting a rent of €16,000 for the unit which has a floor area of 246sq m (2,656sq ft) over two levels. The building would be particularly suitable for a light manufacturing facility including kitchen units. It has an electronically operated up and over door.

30,000 premium for lease

Agent DNG Commercial is seeking key money of €30,000 for the lease of a 20sq m (215sq ft) retail unit at 13 Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6W.

The agent says that the premises, which are rented at €10,200 per annum, would suit a start-up professional practice or a small retailer.

Bank for Fitzwilliam Square 

Sarasin Partners, the London-based investment management company, has opened an office in Dublin as part of an international growth strategy. Led by Fergus Crawford, the Dublin branch's new CEO, the firm has established an excellent track record for providing investment management solutions to private clients, institutions and charities. The firm is part of Sarasin Partners, one of the largest private banks in Switzerland.

The new Dublin office is at 5 Fitzwilliam Square where it is renting 92.9sq m (1,000sq ft) on a short term lease at a rent of €387 per sq m (€36 per sq ft). Michael Turley of Turley Associates handled the letting.

HM opens in Swords

Fashion retailer HM has opened a new store at The Pavilions shopping centre in Swords, Co Dublin. It is trading out of a unit of 1,400sq m (15,069sq ft) on the first floor alongside Dunnes Stores.

The shopping centre reports that weekly footfall has risen from 165,000 12 months ago to over 200,000 since the second phase of the scheme opened.

Paul Fahey of Bannon Commercial is marketing two vacant units in the second phase.

Demand down for industrials

A new report from CB Richard Ellis shows that the economic slowdown has led to a fall off in demand for industrial buildings in Dublin. Take-up of space in the third quarter came to 43,548sq m (468,746sq ft), bringing the total to more than 152,000sq m (1.636 million sq ft) for the nine months to October.

Garret McClean of the agency said that because of the continuing downturn in the economy and the lack of bank liquidity it now appears likely that industrial take-up would continue to be down this year. Overall take-up for 2008 in Dublin was likely to reach 175,000sq m (1.884 million sq ft). "This is healthy but clearly this sector is now starting to feel the impact of the slowdown in the real economy."

HWBC gets CHQ contract

Commercial property agent HWBC has been awarded a three-year management services contract for the CHQ building in Dublin's IFSC. The tenants include Meadows Byrne, Fran Jane, Henry Jermyn, Fitzpatrick's Shoes, Ely and Louis Copeland. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority said that HWBC's demonstration of how CHQ could benefit from the expertise and experience of their retail, investment and marketing teams was instrumental in their decision to give it the contract.

Menarys for Clonmel

The low profile department store Menarys and their young fashion offshoot, Tempest, are to open a store of 1,579sq m (17,000sq ft) next spring in Clonmel. The company has taken a new lease of 8 and 9 O'Connell Street beside New Look and Penneys. The trader also opened a new outlet in Tullamore last week.

Shane Cahir of Colliers Jackson-Stops advised Menarys while Karl Stewart of DTZ acted for the landlord.

Record fall in UK values

UK commercial property values have fallen by the largest ever figure since IPD began monitoring the market 22 years ago. The monthly index for October showed that all property values slipped by 3.8 per cent, fractionally deeper than the fall of 3.7 per cent recorded last December. Like Ireland, the steepest fall in capital values was in the retail sector which was down 4.7 per cent in October, comparable only to last November's fall of 4.3 per cent. Office values in October were also down by 3.7 per cent.