Swedish fashion retailer Arket inks deal for store at Dublin’s Grafton Place

The ongoing revival of the Grafton Street area as Dublin’s foremost shopping destination continues with celebrated fashion retailer Arket set to arrive later this year at Grafton Place, the newly developed mixed-use scheme at the junction of Dawson Street and Nassau Street.

The clothing and homewear brand, which has proved to be a hugely popular draw for visitors to London’s Covent Garden and Regent Street since opening for business there in 2017, is understood to have agreed a 10-year lease for 1,021sq m (11,000sq ft) of space across the ground- and first-floor levels of Grafton Place. Arket is a brand within the H&M Group, the Swedish-headquartered retail giant behind several other leading high-street names including H&M, & Other Stories and Cos.

Arket aims, according to its website, to “build on the Nordic tradition of functional beauty and the mission to enhance life through well-designed everyday things”. The brand, whose name means “piece of paper” in Swedish, says it focuses on sustainability with each of its clothing and homeware products “carefully made to be used and loved for a long time”.

Arket’s decision to locate its first Irish store at Grafton Place follows a protracted period of negotiations between the retailer and the scheme’s developer owners, MARK and BCP Asset Management. The Irish Times understands the parties had been in talks in relation to Arket’s entry to the Irish market for several months before a deal was agreed.

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The news of Arket’s arrival comes just more than two months after the British indoor golf club, Pitch, signed a long-term lease on 836sq m (9,000sq ft) of space at Grafton Place. The outlet, which is due to open in the second quarter of this year, is Pitch’s first international location outside of London.

Completed last summer, Grafton Place comprises 4,274sq m (46,000sq ft) of retail and leisure space along with 13,470sq m (145,000sq ft) of grade A office accommodation at 60 Dawson Street. The office portion of the scheme counts Pinterest, American software giant ServiceNow, and virtual reality company Sandbox VR – whose investors include Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake – among its tenant base.