A round-up of today's other commercial property news in brief ...
Surveyors new president
The new president of the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Ken Cribbin (right), has described the layoffs in the profession as a “catastrophe”. Addressing the annual meeting of the SCS, Cribbin forecast that more than 50 per cent of graduate surveyors and over 14 per cent of chartered surveyors are set to lose their jobs.
The SCS has announced a number of ways it plans to help members, including setting up of database of surveyors who are available for short term or contract work. It is also planned to set up a “hot desk” at the SCS HQ to allow members access to IT facilities, work space and a meeting area.The SCS is also looking at ways to encourage companies to retain staff.
Cribbin says the SCS needs to ensure that members who had been made redundant “stay connected with their profession, stay connected with their professional body and are afforded every reasonable assistance that we can muster”.
€45,000 rent for D9 shop
Lisney is quoting a rent of €45,000 for a shop opposite the entrance to St Patrick’s College at Upper Drumcondra Road in Dublin 9. The unit has a floor area of 82sq m (883sq ft) and is close to Tesco and the EBS Building Society. It is being offered for letting on a four years and nine months lease.
Citywest offices for rent
Fully furnished modern ground floor offices overlooking the “Pool of Tara” at Citywest Business Campus have come on the letting market at a rent of €270 per sq m (€25 per sq ft).
The ground floor office extends to 1,055sq m (11,356sq ft) and is available in suites ranging from 250sq m (2,691sq ft). The flexible layout is perfect for any company seeking a “cost-saving turnkey solution” says agent Jones Lang LaSalle. Car-parking spaces cost an additional €675 per annum.
Bord rejects retention of sign
An Bord Pleanála has refused to allow an advertising sign to remain on the gable wall of a business premises at 2 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3, even though there has been a sign there for over 50 years.
CBS Outdoors had sought permission for the retention of the 6-metre by 3-metre illuminated sign and service platform on the gable wall of the two-storey building on the corner of Annesley Bridge Road and Fairview Strand.
The appeals board heard that Dublin City Council had granted permission in recent years for the retention of a sign. However, the latest development plan contains new and more strict standards on public signs and, according to a planning inspector, the offending sign “is excessive in size relative to the dimensions and form of the two-storey building to which it is attached”.
The inspector also complained that there was “visual clutter” arising from the service platform and the overhead lights. He suggested that there was some justification for a reduced scale of signage because of the history of the site and said a 4-metre by 2-metre sign or smaller would not be unduly obtrusive.
The board did not offer CBS Outdoors this option, deciding instead to flatly refuse permission to retain the sign on the basis that it was in conflict with the development plan.
€35,000 premium for D2 shop
The well located James Gallery at 4 Exchequer Street in Dublin 2 is to relocate to Dalkey after trading for seven years. Agent DNG Commercial is seeking key money of €35,000 for the lease of the premises which has a retail area of 60.77sq m (654sq ft) and storage of 24.6sq m (265sq ft). The 25-year lease from 2005 provides for a current rent of €42,620 per annum. The building is owned by Castlecarra Ltd of which H Mulcahy is named as a director. The gallery is close to the side entrance of Dunnes Stores and is on the opposite side of the street to the crowd-pulling Fallon Byrne food hall.
