In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Capture the Castle market

A high profile shop at the junction of Castlemarket and Drury Street in Dublin 2 has come on the letting market following a decision by Foxford to wind down its operation there. Ben Pearson of Bogle Estates is expecting a broad level of interest in the double-fronted building because of the high footfall in the area at night as well as during the day.

There is an internal floor area of 222sq m (2,390sq ft) at three levels including 82sq m (882sq ft) on the ground floor. Helen McAlinden’s Foxford company has a 20-year lease on the shop from 2006 at a rent of €125,000 per annum.

A nice Lidl leasing

In what is easily the largest industrial letting in Dublin so far this year, agent William Harvey has leased a substantial part of the former Jacob’s production plant at Belgard Road in Tallaght. The German discounter Lidl is understood to have agreed to lease 9,836sq m (105,874sq ft) at a rent of around €27 per sq m (€2.50 per sq ft) .

Philip Harvey of the letting agency is now quoting a rent of €37.67 per sq m (€3.50 per sq ft) for the remaining storage space of 12,073sq m (129,953sq ft) and offices of 4,696sq m (50,547sq ft) in one or two lots.

The building is owned by Westport Investments Property Fund plc

No more Irish Birthdays

The UK company Clinton Cards is to place its 14-strong chain of Birthday shops in Ireland into liquidation. Last October the company warned that its Irish operation was under review. It said that in the 10 weeks to October 10th, like-for-like sales rose by 5.4 per cent at its Birthdays UK arm but slumped by 15.5 per cent at Birthdays Ireland.

The Irish outlets include stores based in shopping centres in Swords, Stillorgan, Liffey Valley, The Square, Blanchardstown, Galway and Irishtown (Athlone).