Ireland’s biggest regional shopping centre has been placed on the market with a €150m (£111.8m) guide price. Joint agents Savills and Coady Supple say they expect “significant international interest” in the sale.
Whitewater Shopping Centre — located at Newbridge, County Kildare, 31 miles south-west of Dublin — opened nine years ago, offering 300,000 sq ft of retail space. It has four anchor tenants, 63 retail units, 11 food court units and a six screen cinema; all surrounded by 1,700 parking spaces.
It is claimed the property generates a net income of almost €12m (£8.8m) a year, including the income from 84 residential units which are part of the sale.
The majority of shop and store units are let to a mix of Irish, UK and European high street brands such as Boots, New Look, River Island and Eason. The four anchor stores are Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, Zara and H & M. The cinema complex is operated by Odeon.
“This top quality investment is expected to attract significant levels of interest from domestic and international investors looking for a quality retail investment with scale in a large and affluent catchment area,” says a joint statement.
The agents claim Whitewater has a catchment area in excess of 300,000 people within an area recognised as part of the Dublin commuter belt.
Newbridge has attracted several global employers in recent years — the Kerry Group, Intel, Oral B, Newbridge Silverware and Pfizer — and is historically the home of Irish horse racing. The area also contains the Irish Army’s largest military base.
The sale comes just weeks after Hammerson and Allianz Real Estate’s announcement that the partnership purchased the “Project Jewel” portfolio of loans secured against prime retail assets in Dublin and part ownerships of the ILAC Shopping Centre and the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords.
Savills and Coady Supple’s joint statement adds: “The sale of Whitewater Shopping Centre has been keenly anticipated by many domestic and international investors looking for scale and security but potentially not willing to compete for the enormous scale which was offered through ‘Project Jewel’.
“Based on the trends we are seeing both in Ireland and across Europe we believe this opportunity will command strong interest from domestic and global institutional capital, as well as a host of private equity investors who have been active in this sphere of late.
“Our in-house research teams are forecasting continued growth in the retail sector, all of which has been evidenced by the recent surge in activity within the sector.”
