Green Property Group are to sell Blanchardstown Centre, Ireland’s largest shopping and leisure destination. The asset will be formally released to the market by joint agents, JLL and Eastdil Secured, in early February 2016 and is expected to obtain a sale price in excess of €1 billion.
The Blanchardstown Centre welcomes in excess of 16 million visitors every year to its 176 stores (across 112,000m2) which includes 20 restaurant / food outlets, two retail parks, and a multiplex cinema. The centre has four anchor tenants: Debenhams, Dunnes Stores, Marks & Spencer and Penneys (Primark).
The existing development and lands covers 85 acres with up to 6,000 surface car parking spaces and is served by an excellent road and public transport network being served by 600 buses daily.
Potential investors will also have the opportunity to grow the centre with capacity for additional net development in the region of 148,500m2 comprising 93,000m2 of retail, offices, leisure and 600 plus apartments, under a master development plan that governs the site. This includes detailed planning consent for a net 25,300m2 extension to the main centre including: a major store unit over three floors, 17 internal retail units, eight external retail/restaurant units and a food court over two storeys, and two underground levels of car spaces totaling 749 spaces.
Current rent roll totals approximately €50m/year with significant scope to increase through asset management and development opportunities.
Stephen Vernon, Green Property Group chairman, commented: “Blanchardstown Centre is a unique asset carefully planned and developed by Green Property, from greenfield site to major town centre. Today, it is one of Europe’s most successful and vibrant retail destinations. I believe now is the optimal time to transition to new ownership to take advantage of its development potential and capitalise on the recovery phase of the consumer cycle. A fundamentally strong economic backdrop, compelling development potential and the inherent strengths of this asset present significant opportunity for the new owners of this great centre.”
John Moran of JLL, joint selling agent with Eastdil Secured, added: “This is a very exciting time to bring such a prestigious and unique European asset to the market, set against a backdrop of spectacular growth in the Irish retail industry driven by strong economic recovery. There has been a wave of international, institutional capital chasing the very best of Irish real estate, with established players such as Hammerson, Allianz, Hines, Starwood REIT and a number of the German funds, Union, Real I.S. & Deka making significant investments in the past 12 months. We expect strong international interest in the development which offers potential for both rental growth and development opportunity.”
The Irish economy continued to recover strongly in 2015. Irish Exchequer details issued on 5 January 2016 shows the economy was broadly balanced in 2015 with an underlying year-on-year Exchequer improvement of around €5.2bn. Sentiment in the retail sector remains positive with improvements in key economic indicators positively impacting consumer and retailer activity. Unemployment levels have declined from 15.1% in February 2012 to 8.8% in December 2015 resulting in increasingly positive consumer sentiment.
Annual retail sales levels have shown strong growth in the last 12 months. Values (5.6%) and volumes (9.3%) are significantly higher than November 2014 according to the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO). This does not include the strong retail sales performance of December 2015. This forms an extremely good basis for the continuing success of the Blanchardstown Centre with significant scope for rental value growth and development. The property will be formally released to the market by the joint agents in early February, 2016. Green REIT plc is a separately constituted entity and is unaffected by this sale.
