Another provincial shopping centre is to be offered for sale as a buyer is sought for the formidable Monaghan Shopping Centre, which has been trading since 1996.
Kevin Donohue, head of investments at DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, is guiding €10.1 million for the town centre complex, which is being sold on the instructions of receivers acting for the Bank of Ireland.
A week ago, the bank cleared the way for the sale of five retail parks once controlled by the same group of investors as are involved in Monaghan. The five parks at Nutgrove in Dublin, Letterkenny, Sligo, Tullamore and Killarney are expected to sell for in excess of €162 million.
Donohue says the Monaghan sale is an opportunity to acquire a “high-yielding retail investment” at an opportune time when retail rents are recovering on the back of rising retail sales and improving consumer sentiment.
Rental income
The recently refurbished centre is producing a rental income of €1,050,000, which will give the next owner a net return of 10.01 per cent after allowing for standard purchasers’ costs of 4.46 per cent.
The 26 shops in the centre extend to 8,957sq m (96,408sq ft) at groundfloor level and include the anchor trader, Tesco, which own its own store. The other main traders are Boots, which pays €146,000 rent for 305sq m (3,288sq ft); McDonald's, which pays €120,000 for 209sq m (2,250sq ft); and Lifestyle Sports, which pays €50,000 for 334sq m (3,600sq ft). Other tenants include Jack & Jones, which pays €45,000 for 120sq m (1,300sq ft); Holland & Barrett, which pays €30,000 for 130sq m (1,400sq ft); and Carphone Warehouse which pays €22,500 for 83sq m (900sq ft).
DTZ says the centre has a weighted average unexpired lease term of more than 5.4 years and new owners will have numerous opportunities to improve the current income profile.
Only one shop in the centre is vacant and this is due to reopen shortly.
One of the strong selling points for the Monaghan centre is the unusually large number of surface car-parking spaces immediately adjoining it. It has 660 car parking spaces in three car parks, one of which is owned by the centre and can accommodate 190 vehicles.
