With the recovery in the supermarket sector now firmly established, Friends First is to seek in excess of €8.4 million for the SuperValu store in Bray, Co Wicklow, which will show an initial yield of 7.4 per cent.
The sale follows the successful disposal last year of three Dublin shopping centres anchored by SuperValu and another one in Waterford for an overall price of €80 million. The largest of the assets, Lucan Shopping Centre, was acquired by Savills Investment Managers for €45 million, reflecting a yield of 5.7 per cent.
The Bray store is 2,017sq m (21,709sq ft) and is held on a 25-year lease with upwards-only rent reviews at a current rent of €649,790. The lease has another 13½ years to run.
SuperValu is one of Ireland’s largest grocery and food chains with 22.6 per cent of the Irish grocery market, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
The Bray store traded as Superquinn until 2014, three years after the Musgrave Group bought it and the entire chain of Superquinn businesses out of receivership. In 2007, Friends First acquired the Bray asset for its First Corinthian Irish Retail Fund in a sale and leaseback deal.
More recently Friends First has diverted its attention to the upgrading and enlargement of both the Royal Hibernian Way off Dawson Street and Blackrock Shopping Centre in the south Dublin suburb. It also recently acquired a number of key buildings in the South William Street area which are ripe for redevelopment.
SuperValu is the anchor tenant within Castle Street Shopping Centre, which has 33 other shops and an overall retail area of 4,329sq m (46,600sq ft).
The centre is served by a 150-space car park. The town serves an extensive catchment area in north Wicklow and is one of the fastest growing urban centres on the east coast.
Róisín Rafferty of Savills, who is handling the sale, said the Bray asset was an attractive lot size with a high-quality tenant and long income which would undoubtedly appeal to investors looking for an easily managed investment. Because of the quality of the tenant and the long unexpired term of the lease still to run she believed an incoming purchaser would be able to avail of enhanced terms through competitive debt financing.
The Musgrave Group has expanded rapidly over the years and now has 223 SuperValu stores nationwide. Its turnover exceeded €4.4 billion in the last financial year.
