GIANT UK multiple Boots is to operate the third anchor store at vale Shopping Centre, which is being developed along the C-ring motorway in west Dublin. The letting means Quarryvale will be the first shopping centre in Ireland opting to trade without a supermarket.
The deal with Boots will come as a severe blow to Quinnsworth, which had been involved in lengthy negotiations to purchase 30,000 square feet for a supermarket.
The main anchor tenant, Marks & Spencer, handles a specialised range of foodstuffs but does not operate as a conventional supermarket. The company is understood to have paid about £9 million for a huge 90,000 square foot unit, its first-out-of-town store in the Republic.
The decision to opt for Boots rather than Quinnsworth is in line with the original concept of making Quarryvale different from other shopping centres.
Last autumn, the letting agents, Hamilton Osborne King, said the policy of the promoters was to differentiate Quarryvale from other shopping centres in order to broaden its appeal.
The choice of Boots to fill the third anchor store is understood to have been dictated by the increasing perception that Quinnsworth, like its sister company, Crazy Prices, and Dunnes Stores, are no longer the key to the success of new shopping centres.
Both supermarket chains are already over represented in shopping centres and shoppers are now looking for a different choice. In the new Jervis Centre it is reported Marks & Spencer rather than Quinnsworth is pulling in the crowds.
Boots is understood to have agreed a rent of around £400,000 for its 25,000-square-foot store. Although this rental of £16 per square foot is pitched well below the going rate for Quarryvale, it is still worth about double the value of a direct sale to Quinnsworth.
Lambert Smith Hampton handled negotiations for Boots.
Zone A rents in Quarryvale will be about £125 per square foot - 50 per cent more than in Blanchardstown Town Centre.
Because of the strong appeal of the three anchors - Marks & Spencer, Boots and C & A, is it understood the remaining shops will be let by invitation to the traders rather than through a marketing campaign.
With 178 acres available to Quarryvale, a large, stand-alone supermarket may be developed on the site at a later stage.
