Only four months after opening the Cos fashion store on Dublin's Wicklow Street, the giant H&M fashion group has emerged as the favourite to put another of its luxury brands, & Other Stories, into the former A|wear shop on Grafton Street. The letting is likely to be confirmed later this month.
Intense competition between international and Irish retailers for the landmark building virtually opposite Brown Thomas will be seen as confirmation that Grafton Street is finally emerging from its trading difficulties and discord over inflated rents.
The line-up of tenants chasing the three-level floor plates at 26-27 Grafton Street includes American fashion chains Gap, Gant and Anthropologie, UK shoe retailer Schuh, the Spanish Inditex company, Zara Home, German fashion house Hugo Boss, the Irish-based Lifestyle Sports as well as & Other Stories.
The decision by the H&M group to pitch for the Grafton Street shop comes after the highly successful launch last April of Cos in the former Tower Records shop around the corner on Wicklow Street. Later this year H&M is also to open a major new store in the former National Irish Bank on Dublin's College Green. The Swedish group already operates similar stores on South King Street as well as at the Ilac centre and Blanchardstown.
& Other Stories is expected to carry a full range of women’s clothes, shoes and accessories, all noted for their distinctive design and quality at affordable prices. This high-end brand was launched in 2013 with a series of concept stores around Europe, including one on London’s Regent Street which opened last March.
Eoin Feeney of agent BNP Parisbas Real Estate said that while he was not yet in a position to announce a letting of the building they were greatly encouraged by the depth of interest in it from a wide range of high profile traders.
Some of the companies chasing the premises are understood to have offered at least €50,000 more than the quoted rent of €850,000 per annum.
The five-storey over basement building has the second largest retail area on the street after BT2 – apart from the department stores – with more than 882sq m (9,500sq ft) at basement, ground and first floor levels.
The three upper floors, fitted out as offices, were used as A|wear’s HQ until it went into receivership. Although the eight interested tenants had the option of renting the second floor as well as the three lower floors and seeking planning permission to put it into retail use, none choose to do so.
The owners of the building, Aviva Investors, are planning to carry out a major upgrading of the block early next year including the installation of a new façade. In the meantime, the retail area has been let to HMV on a short term lease until next January at a rent which equates to €750,000 per annum. With the three top floors of offices extending to 836sq m (9,000sq ft) also to benefit from the refurbishment, BNP is expecting to achieve rents of around €430 per sq m (€40 per sq ft). This would give Aviva an overall income return of around €1.3 million – a figure broadly in line with the rent earned during the property boom.
