Avoca Handweavers pays £800,000 in Suffolk Street

For the second time in three months, key money of £800,000 has been paid for the former Makulla's fashion shop at Suffolk Street, in Dublin 2. Avoca Handweavers has agreed to pay the premium for the 9,000 sq ft store, which has three retail floors including almost 2,000 sq ft at street level. Last September, Avoca also offered a similar premium but the owners of the building, Mercury Engineering, exercised its option to buy in the lease at the same price. It then put it back on the market at a higher rent, moving it up from £155,000 to £200,000. About 18 months, ago businessman Hugh O'Regan also paid key money of £700,000 for the same building, but subsequently put it back on the market when he failed to get planning permission to use it as a fashion outlet during the day and a bar at night.

Avoca Handweavers specialises in clothes and home furnishings. It is likely to use part of the Suffolk Street premises as a restaurant. Avoca operates similar outlets in Kilmacanogue, Avoca and Powerscourt in Co Wicklow, Blarney in Co Cork. It also has a small number of outlets in North America.

Edmund Douglas of Douglas Newman Good handled the letting of the Suffolk Street shop.