IN THE first retail deal in Dublin's Grafton Street this year, UK confectionery chain Thorntons is to open a new outlet next door to Brown Thomas. Thorntons paid a premium of more than £130,000 for Number 87, which has been largely rebuilt and re-roofed by its owners, the Irish Pension Fund Property Unit Trust (IPFPUT). The initial rent under a new lease will be £120,000 per annum. IPFPUT bought the lease from the Brown Thomas Group about a year after the department store acquired it for around £300,000. Fashion retailer Shree previously occupied the building, which has 834 square feet on the ground floor and 2,620 square feet in the basement and three other floors.

Fintan Tierney of Lambert Smith Hampton handled the negotiations for Thorntons and Stephen Murray represented, IPFPUT.