Foot Locker to sell leases

The North American sportswear company Foot Locker is to sell the leases of one of its two shops in Dublin's Grafton Street and another one on Galway's principal high street.

Less than 12 months after the company acquired 14 shops from Champion Sports, Foot Locker has instructed its agent Jones Lang LaSalle to seek over €800,000 for the lease of 44 Grafton Street, part of which is sub-let to the Captain America restaurant. Last autumn, the company also offloaded one of its two stores on Henry Street.

The move to run only one shop on Dublin's principal shopping streets is hardly surprising given the sharp increase in rents over the past few years and the prospect of further increases in the coming months.

Foot Locker trades out of 325sq m (3,500sq ft) at ground, lower ground and upper ground levels while an additional 371sq m (4,000sq ft) is sub-let to the long-established Captain America. The overall rent, settled about a year ago, stands at €750,000, of which €100,000 is contributed by Captain America. That rent is due to be reviewed shortly. The premium of over €800,000 being sought is considerably less than the €1.4 million offer by Karen Millen for another store on Grafton Street. Once the offer had been made, the landlords stepped in and paid that figure for the lease before re-letting the store to the fashion outfitter on new terms.

Jones Lang LaSalle is equally unlikely to have much bother in assigning the lease of the Galway premises. The high quality building is in a key spot close to the start of Shop Street, the premier location in the city. Foot Locker is currently paying a rent of €420,000 for the shop which has 232sq m (2,500sq ft) of retail space on two levels. With few opportunities available to trade on Shop Street, Red Light Records recently paid €415,0900 for the lease of 37 Shop Street. On this basis alone, Jones Lang LaSalle might well get key money of over €750,000 for the Foot Locker store because it is one of the best on the street.