Peter Mark brothers pay €500,000 for Grafton Street lease

The latest shop lease to go for sale on Dublin's Grafton Street has made almost €500,000.

Peter and Mark Keaveney, principals in the highly successful Peter Mark hairdressing chain, have agreed to pay the premium for the Bally Shoes store at 43 Grafton Street where they also own the freehold.

The two Co Meath brothers, who also own their own store at 74 Grafton Street and the Vodafone Store at 3 Grafton Street, plan to put the lease of number 43 back on the market once the building has been redeveloped.

The three high street stores have proven exceptionally good investments since they were acquired more than 20 years ago. They are now likely to be worth over €35 million.

The brothers also own about 30 per cent of the 70-plus Peter Mark salons they operate on both sides of the border.

Bally Shoes has been trading out of number 43 for about a' decade.

With the company's products now stocked by many of the leading stores in the city, it is understood the company decided that it no longer needed its own outlet, particularly at a time when rents on the street are about to shoot up.

Bally has been paying a rent of about €250,000 for around 232.2 sq m (2,500 sq ft) at street level. There is little more than 37.1 sq m (400 sq ft) on the three other levels, basement, first and second floors.

The unusual configuration means that there is obvious potential to increase the size of the store in line with adjoining buildings.

Edmund Douglas of agent Douglas Newman Good Commercial, who advises Peter Mark, said the big multiple traders were now looking for ever larger outlets on the high streets, like those now available in new shopping centres.

While much of the demand for large stores on Grafton Street is being driven by foreign multiples, there is increasing evidence that some of the smaller traders will be happy to settle for secondary streets in the same area where both key money and rents are significantly lower.

Peter Levins, who specialises in retail property at agent Harrington Bannon, said there was an obvious swing away from the high rents of Grafton Street towards "funky" streets like Exchequer Street, Wicklow Street, South Anne Street and Duke Street, where there was a good mix of traders and a choice of coffee shops.

"These are pleasant streets and they are certainly attracting an ever increasing number of shoppers."