Construction grows again in Republic after three-month slowdown

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Construction began growing again in December following a three-month slowdown in the Republic, the latest figures show.

Ulster Bank’s construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI) shows that activity in commercial development and housebuilding increased last month, while work on public projects continued falling but at a slower pace than previously.

The pick-up in two of the industry’s three key sectors meant growth returned in December following a three-month slowdown in activity.

The index, which follows the sector’s performance every month, reached 52 in December, indicating that the industry grew during the month.

Ulster’s PMI takes 50 as its benchmark. Any reading above that figure means that the industry expanded on the previous month, while any result below that shows that it shrank. November’s reading was 48.2.

Simon Barry, chief economist for the Republic at Ulster Bank, welcomed the return to growth in building last month.

“Indeed, following a three-month sequence of falling activity the headline PMI index rose sharply last month to get back to above the 50 breakeven level for the first time since August,” he said

“Reduced Brexit uncertainty was cited as a source of support for the increase in overall activity at the end of 2019, while the improvement also reflected better performance across the three main sub-sectors.”

Mr Barry noted that housebuilding grew in December, supporting a view that Brexit fears were behind the slowdown over the previous three months.

“Meanwhile, commercial activity saw a further acceleration in its rate of expansion last month, in the process remaining the fastest-growing sub-sector,” he added.

Housing activity reached 51.8 in December, indicating that activity in that sector grew. Commercial activity, which includes building offices, shops and factories, was 53.6.

Civil engineering, mostly comprising work on State-funded projects such as roads, schools and hospitals, returned at 43.1, indicating that activity in this area slowed.

Builders were more confident about the future in December than they had been for six months, Ulster Bank said.

Published Article

At a Glance: Office Market 2019 in Review

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With 3 transactions in excess of 100,000 sq. ft. take-up reached an impressive 1.2m sq. ft. in Q4. This brings the year-end total to 3.29m sq. ft. across 204 transactions. Full report to follow.

At a Glance: Investment Market Q4 2019

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The strongest ever quarter for the Irish investment Market with total turnover for Q4 2019 reaching a staggering €3.76bn and total turnover for the 12 months of the year in excess of €7bn. To put the quarter in context it is higher than the entire annual turnover of the last cycle peak in 2006 of €3bn+ and annualised smashes this cycles 2016 peak of €4.5bn. PRS remained the most active sector accounting for 41% of transaction value. Full Report to follow.

Shake Dog to launch its first Dublin restaurant in Ilac Centre

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IRISH diner Shake Dog is set to open its first Dublin restaurant in the Ilac Centre on Henry Street in March 2020.

The popular American-style diner serves various comfort food dishes including burgers, fries, shakes, salads and chicken tenders.

The diner already has flagship restaurants across Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary, Galway, Wexford and Drogheda and uses fresh and locally sourced ingredients.

Opening in March 2020, Shake Dog will occupy a 308 sq.m. unit in the Ilac’s Central Square.

The restaurant also caters for vegetarians with various veggie friendly options.

Commenting on the news of the upcoming Dublin restaurant, Brian Dunne, founder of Shake Dog, said: “We are really excited to be opening our first Shake Dog in Dublin in such a central and busy location.

“The team at the Ilac Centre has been a pleasure to work with and we can’t wait for the centre’s customers to discover our menu.”

Billy Reid, General Manager at the Ilac Centre, added: “Shake Dog is an exciting Irish brand which will be a great addition to the new dining offering at the Ilac Centre.

“We look forward to introducing this new national restaurant to customers.”

Published Article

MacDonagh Junction – a magical shopping centre and much, much more

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MacDonagh Junction is the larges shopping centre in the South East. But that is a massive under-statement for the Kilkenny centre is so much more.

It is a cultural hub, an entertainment base, a tourist attraction and a place where people meet to eat and enjoy everything from a quick coffee to a leisurely gourmet experience.

MacDonagh Junction is Kilkenny city’s residential, commercial business and leisure quarter, with an architectural style that perfectly suits its historic surroundings.

It is home to 100 luxury apartments, 40 top quality retail units, and a landmark office building. It has restaurants, space for performances, a community youth centre and leisure facilities including a bowling centre.

MacDonagh Junction is a platform for leading Irish and international retailers. The anchor tenants include Dunnes, H&M, River Island, Next and TK Maxx.

“There has been a good uplift in our retail performance over the last six years with sustained measured footfall growth, resulting in improvements in performance across mos of the brands trading at MacDonagh Junction,” says the centre’s manager, Marion Acreman.

This, she explains, has enabled MacDonagh Junction to attract brands that enhance the tenant mix and offer customers an outstanding range of fashion, food and leisure services.

Shopping at MacDonagh junction is always a pleasure. “We have top class experiential services, including a baby -feeding suite, height-adjustable changing bench and free wifi,” explains Marion. “And we have a wheelchair and buggy loan service from our award winning Age Friendly Accredited business.”

The main event space at MacDonagh Junction is known as Workhouse Square. This is a covered outdoor space with access from the main street and direct access from the shopping mall itself.

It is a courtyard-style space with a number of food options, including the Courtyard Bar & Grill, a fully serviced restaurant operated by the award winning chef, David Rousse.

The built environment at MacDonagh Junction merges beautifully with the historic buildings of both the Famine Workhouse and Goods Shed of the old railway station.

And MacDonagh Junction is home to a unique heritage offering, the free Kilkenny Famine Experience Tour. “We have targeted uses that enable us to offer lifestyle services such as optician, beauty, art classes, youth centre, banking and bowling,” says Marion.

MacDonagh Junction offers a free personal shopper service throughout the centre. It’s great opportunity to get personalised style and fashion advice from Karen Morrissey. And here’s another little bonus – there are electric charging points in the Blue Car Park at MacDonagh Junction.

The run-up to Christmas is an exciting time at MacDonagh Junction where they have been celebrating the launch of the new Star Wars movie with a whole platoon of characters to meet, greet and entertain you.

Nore Valley Park are providing an immersive festive programme in Workhouse Square. You can meet Santa and his mischievous elves and see his reindeer. You may even get the chance to bottle feed a baby reindeer.

It’s all part of the MacDonagh Junction magic.

“The benefits of doing business in Kilkenny are immeasurable and we hear that from locals and visitors on a daily basis,” says Marion Acreman. “We are acutely aware of the changing retail environment and feel the way forward for us is offering the experience people are asking for to include being open when people have time for leisurely visits and enhancing the experience to ensure the customer is valued and heard.”

Published Article

Retail Realities by Neil Bannon

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Consumer demand in Ireland is up, but new retail outlets are few and far between, and rental Growth is modest. 

Before writing a piece on the retail market, I should address the elephant in the room: retail has become a dirty word in the property market. Investors are happy to buy private rental sector (PRS), sheds, hotels and offices without recourse to supply demand dynamics or potential technological disruption, but they are spooked by retail. The impact of technology on remote working is ignored in the office market, but the ability to buy from home has become the obsession of the investment community. Like many issues in the world today the narrative has drowned out the reality. Retail real estate, like all other markets, is driven by the dynamics of supply and demand. What has spooked the market is the arrival of a new element of supply it doesn’t understand – the internet. Online shopping is just another form of supply into the market, another conduit through which consumers can purchase products and services. It has a different impact on different products and services because some, such as music, are easily supplied online, whereas others like getting your hair cut or buying a cup of coffee are clearly not. Most things we buy fall somewhere in between and can be acquired through multiple channels, and it is in this non-binary world that retailers are targeting consumers. A simple way to think of the impact of online is as additional supply into the market because, as with all markets, the supply-demand dynamic will ultimately determine value.

The danger of comparison

Now that we have outed the evil internet, let’s consider what’s happening in Ireland’s retail market and how this compares to other markets in Europe. Except that’s quite difficult. Retail is local and consequently direct line comparisons expose different approaches across Europe and can be very misleading. For example, in Ireland we have retail parks – collections of large sheds beside big car parks where in most cases you can only sell bulky goods due to strict planning restrictions. In France they have a lot of retail warehouses but they can sell anything from shoes to deckchairs, and in most cases they are stand-alone boxes. In the UK, shopping parks with the same form of development but with much greater open use are more common. In Germany, the supermarket business is dominated by discounters who in large part rent their stores, whereas in Ireland around 90% of the supermarkets are owner occupied.

Searching for common statistics in such widely different markets is dangerous. In a recent representation to a European institutional investor, we were quoted vacancy rates that they had been sent indicating that Ireland suffered from similar vacancy rates to the UK. As Bannon is instructed on about 25% of Ireland’s stock of shopping centres and retail parks, we were able to advise that our composite vacancy rate was only 7%, significantly lower than they had been advised, meaning that either the stats they had been given were incorrect or the rest of the Irish market is having a torrid time and the owners of these assets should appoint Bannon quickly to sort out their vacancy issues. The same problems arise with respect to rates per square metre, growth in rents and yields. Euro-wide stats should be taken as a broad guideline only. We look beyond the statistical morass to what makes retail really tick, which brings us back to the supply-demand dynamic.

Stagnant supply

Supply in the Irish retail market has been stagnant for over a decade. Other than a couple of stragglers that were committed to construction when the lights came on in the casino in 2008, nothing has opened and nothing new has been started. This makes physical supply very easy to measure. During the recession Bannon data based the entire market, and keeping it up to date to accommodate new supply has been depressingly easy. There have been some stand-alone supermarkets but the pace of new development here has also been light and mainly focused on openings by the discounters Lidl and Aldi. The mainstream supermarket players are currently opening stores at the rate of one every five years.

Goodbody Stockbrokers measured the supply in the Irish market per capita in 2017, which showed us to be mid table in Europe, and 20% less than the UK. Strikingly, the US, where all the scary mood music is coming from that the internet is going to kill shops, has six times the supply of the Irish market. Think of the five biggest shopping centres near you and then imagine there’s five more of each of them within easy reach and you get a sense of the oversupply in that market. Since the Goodbody report the supply ratio has further improved as the population continues to grow, whereas new retail supply is minimal. There are now 500,000 more people in Ireland since we last built a new shopping centre and the pipeline for new retail centres is limited to the Special Development Zones (SDZs) where retail is required to match the large increase in housing supply.

UK woes

Since the low point of the recession in 2012, retail sales have grown by 34%, household disposable income has grown by 7%, and consumer savings are now at an all-time high, as is household net worth. Supply is stagnant but consumer demand has grown strongly, so rents should be charging ahead. But growth has been modest. The reason has been the poor demand for space from UK retailers. Traditionally, UK retailers dominated demand for Irish shops, in many cases squeezing out domestic players. By way of example, 11 shopping centres opened in Ireland in 2007 (Bannon let seven of them). They all opened fully let and UK retailers dominated, especially in the fashion space. In Athlone Towncentre over 70% of the space was occupied by UK-based retailers.

The current retail recession in the UK means that this demand has dropped dramatically. We lease a retail portfolio for Oaktree and Sigma Retail Partners, and recent analysis of their portfolio shows that only 18% of leasing has originated from the UK, with increasing presence from European retailers. This trend is likely to be reinforced by Brexit.

So, in summary, the Irish retail market is in good shape, largely full and supported by an excellent demand-supply dynamic in terms of consumer demand and muted development. However, rental growth is modest as we wean ourselves off an over-reliance on the UK-based retailers. When investors will get over their irrational fear of the sector is anyone’s guess.

Published Article

Economic growth set to continue in 2020 but at a reduced rate

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The Irish economy looks set to register strong growth again in 2019 with GDP likely to increase by almost 6 per cent in the current year. While certain multi-national related transactions are distorting the headline figures, the large increase in taxation receipts and the continued strong performance of the Irish labour market means the underlying economy is performing well.

The persistent growth of the Irish economy is remarkable given the strong headwinds observed in 2019, the uncertainty about the Brexit process, and the moderation observed in global conditions, all of which are likely to have had a negative impact on the domestic economy. The Brexit process has merely been parked, with the possibility of a free trade agreement being negotiated between the UK and the EU in 2020. This will almost certainly result in further uncertainty in the years ahead. We expect to see the economy grow by a slower rate in 2020 of 3.3 per cent.

Another potential challenge for the Irish economy is the issue of corporation tax receipts, which are becoming an increasingly large share of the total tax receipts of the Irish exchequer. They now account for over 18 per cent of total tax receipts and there is concern that a portion of these receipts may be windfall revenues, which are not sustainable. ESRI economist Petros Varthalitis examines the implications for key fiscal metrics if there was a sudden reduction in the amount of corporation tax receipts available. It would likely require significant measures to be adopted by the Government in order to maintain fiscal discipline. The results underpin the need to quantify the potential windfall component of these receipts. They are also important given the recent proposals by the OECD for corporation tax policy.

The Commentary also examines the regional diversity of the Irish property market performance over the last 10 years. ESRI economists Matthew Allen-Coghlan and Kieran McQuinn note that both prices and rents have grown at significantly different rates in different areas of the country during this period. Areas of the country that had relatively high prices and rents initially experienced the fastest pace of growth subsequently. This suggests that different regions of the country have experienced varying economic growth rates over the past 10 years.

ESRI reports

Introducing Barking Mad Pet Boutique to Rathmines!

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Barking Mad, who work with local Irish & renowned international producers to supply premium pet food & accessories are now open in The Swan Centre Rathmines.

Visit Barking Mad Pet Boutique today! Show them this image and get 10% off! T&Cs apply.

Cork city shopping to become sensory-friendly on Sunday mornings

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Some of the biggest retail names in Cork City centre have united to provide a sensory-friendly shopping hour.

The stores have all agreed to turn off their in-store music, dim the lights, switch off the till noises, and suspend shelf stacking to provide a quiet, calm and stress-free shopping environment for their first hour of trade every Sunday morning.

Their staff have also received specific customer service training to help meet the needs of those who decide to shop during the quiet hour.

The Cork Business Association (CBA), which is supporting the initiative, said while mainly aimed at those with autism, Down syndrome, Alzheimers, epilepsy, dementia, and people with acquired brain injury, it can also provide a very pleasant shopping experience for many others.

CBA chief executive, Lawrence Owens, described it is a great step towards making the city more family-friendly and inclusive.

“The response from businesses has been really positive and our objective is to grow and expand the provision of sensory-friendly shopping throughout the city,” he said.

“It will be available for the first hour of trade in participating stores on Sunday mornings, and longer where they can. We will monitor it as it rolls out and expand and improve as we go.”

Marks & Spencer, which has pioneered the initiative in its city centre store for about three years, has now been joined by other big retail names including Debenhams, Brown Thomas, Merchants Quay Shopping Centre, Penneys, Vibes & Scribes, Fitzgeralds Menswear, Casey’s Furniture and Diana O’Mahony Jewellers. Participating stores on Opera Lane include H&M, Topshop, Sketchers, and SpecSavers.

M&S general manager, Ray O’Callaghan, said their calm hour has become very important for some of their customers.

The CBA has encouraged other businesses to get involved, and will arrange free training for retail staff.

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Elverys opens new store in Crescent Shopping Centre

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Ireland’s leading authentic sports retailer, Intersport Elverys opens new store in Crescent Shopping Centre.

Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre bought by Davy for €175m

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A fund managed by Davy Real Estate has paid a total of about €175 million for Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin.

The completion of the transaction in recent days gives the Davy investors full control of the shopping centre, following a period of nearly 13 years in which it had been owned jointly by several shareholders.

Davy Real Estate’s acquisition of the property involved the purchases of three separate shareholdings held by Madison International Realty (35.4%), businessman Pierce Molony (27%) and Irish Life (37.6%).

While the combined 62.4% stake of Madison International and Mr Molony was offered for sale quietly in a targeted process by HWBC in June, it is understood Irish Life had, until recently, intended to retain its interest in the centre.

Unsolicited approach

That position is said to have changed, however, after an unsolicited approach from Davy in early November. Having agreed a deal for the purchase of the majority of the St Stephen’s Green retail scheme, Davy informed Irish Life of its interest in taking full control of the property. Following a period of discussions between the parties, Irish Life agreed to sell its stake.

While Irish Life’s decision to dispose of its shareholding brings to an end its longstanding association with Stephen’s Green shopping centre, it continues to hold significant retail interests within its immediate vicinity, with 23 shops under its ownership in the Grafton Street area.

Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre was developed in 1988 by British Land. It has more than 90 shops over three levels with an overall floor area of 29,728 sq.m (320,000 sq.ft), and is currently producing rental income of about €8 million.

Published Article

Quigleys Cafe opens in The Square

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Bannon are delighted to welcome Quigleys Cafe, Bakery & Deli to The Square Tallaght.

The new cafe is now open for business just off the centre mall on Level 2.

Angel Nails are now open at Manor Mills Shopping Centre

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Angel Nails are now open at Manor Mills Shopping Centre, located at Kiosk 4 (bottom of travelator)

Urban Eyes are opening in Pavilions shopping centre

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Urban Eyes are opening in Pavilions shopping centre, Swords!

New Local Independent Sunglasses Store looking to bring the classic and new brands to Ireland.

Top 10 commercial property megadeals in 2019

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When the total volume of investment in Ireland’s commercial property market hit a record €4.6 billion in 2014, any expectations of that figure being surpassed anytime soon were few and far between.

Just five years on, however, the consensus within the industry is that a new benchmark of around €5 billion will be set. While the number is eyewatering in and of itself, it is all the more extraordinary when one considers the various domestic and international factors that have served at different times during the year to give local and international investors pause for thought.

Here at home, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s Budget 2020 stamp duty hike and Reit policy changes served to shake investor confidence, while on the global stage, the known unknowns of Donald Trump’s US presidency and the UK’s self-flagellation over Brexit, weighed heavily on buyers and vendors alike.

But with international funds still looking for a long-term home in an era of record low bond yields and interest rates, Ireland and more particularly Dublin’s standing as a location to deploy capital came into its own, as the top 10 deals below illustrate.

1 The Green Reit portfolio, Dublin – €1.34 billion

The largest deal of the year and the largest direct asset sale ever in the Irish market has served to propel this year’s record investment spend to the €5 billion mark. Having assembled a portfolio comprising Horizon Logistics Park and prime Dublin offices such as One Molesworth Street and the Central Park campus in Sandyford under founders Pat Gunne and Stephen Vernon, Green Reit surrendered its stock market listing last month following the acquisition for €1.34 billion of its assets by UK-headquartered, Henderson Park Capital.

2 The “XVI” portfolio, Dublin & Cork – €285 million

In July, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) cleared the way for Ires Reit’s €285 million purchase of the 815 homes in the “XVI” (16) portfolio from US private equity giant, Marathon Asset Management. Distributed across 16 high-end developments in Dublin and Cork, the portfolio largely comprises the 588 apartments for which Marathon paid Nama € 120 million in 2015 as part of the Project Plum loan sale process. Included in the Plum portfolio’s prime assets were 101 apartments at Beechwood Court in Stillorgan, 67 units at Time Place on Corrig Road in Sandyford, 39 apartments at Heywood Court at Northwood in Santry and 128 apartments at Northern Cross on the Malahide Road.

3 The Sorting Office, Dublin docklands – €240 million

In June, Pat Crean’s Marlet Property Group and its finance partner, M&G Investments, secured a significant return from the sale of the Sorting Office to Singapore-headquartered real estate investment trust, Mapletree. Located on a site in the Dublin docklands which Marlet and M&G acquired from An Post for €40 million in 2015, the 19,510 sq.m (210,000 sq.ft) office scheme represented Mapletree’s first acquisition in Ireland. Google is currently in talks to rent the development in its entirety to facilitate the expansion of its Dublin-based workforce.

4 Heuston South Quarter (HSQ), Kilmainham, Dublin 8 – €222 million

While Henderson Park Capital hit the headlines in a big way this year with its purchase of Green Reit, it made its first foray into the Irish market last May when it teamed up with developer Joe O’Reilly to acquire the landmark Heuston South Quarter (HSQ) in Dublin city centre from US property giant Marathon Asset Management for €222 million.

Widely acknowledged as one of the foremost mixed-use campuses in the capital, the HSQ scheme comprises 266 apartments, 9,877 sq.m (106,319 sq.ft) of Grade A office space, 4,463 sq.m (48,034 sq.ft) of commercial space, and a 1.47 hectare (3.63 acre) development site.

The price paid by Henderson Park represented a premium of 85 per cent on the €120 million HSQ’s former owners, Marathon, paid Lloyds Banking Group to acquire the loans associated with the scheme in 2014.

5 Four and Five Dublin Landings, Dublin docklands – €205 million

The success of Ballymore and Oxley’s Dublin Landings mixed-use scheme continued apace this year with the sale of blocks 4 and 5 at the sprawling docklands development to the Central Bank of Ireland for €98.6 million and €106.5 million respectively. Located next to the Central Bank’s existing headquarters on North Wall Quay, the blocks extend to a combined floor area of 200,000 sq.ft (18,850 sq.m), and will be used to accommodate the expansion of its existing 1,815-strong workforce by up to 300 employees.

6 Five Hanover Quay, Dublin docklands – €190 million

Targeted Investment Opportunities ICAV (a joint venture between funds managed by Oaktree Capital, Bennett Group and Nama) didn’t have to wait long to find a buyer for Five Hanover Quay. Having put the fully-let prime Dublin docklands office building on the market last May, they agreed its sale for “just over” €190 million to German-based fund manager, Union Investment, in August. The property, which comprises 14,864 sq.m of office space distributed across seven floors, is let to various tenants including technology company DocuSign and Aptiv, a global auto parts company.

7 Nova Atria, Sandyford – €167 million

With the ink barely dry on its €240 million purchase of the Sorting Office, Singapore-headquartered Mapletree hit the acquisition trail again, snapping up the Nova Atria office campus at Sandyford in south Dublin from US private equity firm, Blackstone, for €167 million. The closure of the deal in October brings Mapletree’s investment to date in the Irish office market to €407 million.

Nova Atria comprises two office blocks comprising a total of 320,000 sq.ft known as Nova Atria North and South. Nova Atria North is let to a number of tenants while all 15,939 sq.m (172,121 sq.ft) of space at Nova Atria South was let to Facebook by the scheme’s previous owners, Blackstone, earlier this year.

8 Reflector Building, Dublin docklands – €155 million

While several parties including German asset manager, Wealthcore, and South Korean bank holding company, Hana Financial Group, were linked to its purchase since it was brought to the market last February, another German investor, Deka Immobolien, came through to acquire the Reflector Building for €155 million.

Completed by Michael Cotter’s Park Developments in 2018, the Reflector is a six-storey over-basement building comprising 11,250 sq.m of office space and 329 sq.m of retail space, with 34 car-parking spaces. The property is producing annual rental income of around € 7 million from several tenants, including Airbnb, LogMeIn and web designer Wix.

9 Charlemont Exchange, Dublin city centre – €145 million

Developer Pat Crean’s Marlet Property Group landed the first major commercial real estate deal of 2019, when it completed the sale last April of its Charlemont Exchange office scheme to South Korean-based fund, Vestas Management for €145 million.

Marlet assembled the Charlemont Exchange development originally through the acquisition of Charlemont Blocks A, B and C in March 2017, followed by the purchase in December 2017 of Charlemont Block D. Marlet subsequently extended the combined footprint of the four-building scheme from its original 94,968 sq.ft to 121,270 sq.ft in the course of refurbishing the scheme.

Prior to selling the development, Marlet agreed a lease with flexible workspace provider, WeWork, for all four blocks at a rent of €55 per square foot.

10 DIT Kevin Street campus, Dublin 2 – €140 million

Developer Shane Whelan’s Westridge Real Estate signalled its intention to become a major player in the Dublin commercial property market last September when it paid €140 million to acquire DIT’s former Kevin Street campus.

Whelan’s acquisition of the 3.57-acre site represented the biggest development land deal of 2019, and was backed by a number of New York-based high net worth family offices. Debt finance for the deal was provided by Fairfield Real Estate Finance led by Chris Wilson and BentallGreenOak which was led by its Dublin-born vice-president Allen Crampton.

Westridge is in the process of preparing a planning application for a major mixed-use scheme comprising mainly Grade A office space alongside a large element of private rented sector (PRS) apartments, and food and beverage offerings. The former DIT campus is located just 300m from the Luas Green Line stop at St Stephen’s Green, and within walking distance of the city centre.

€100 million mark

Outside of the top 10 deals by value, numerous other transactions during the year eclipsed or at least equalled the €100 million mark. In the hotel sector alone, both the Marker and the Conrad changed hands for €134 million and €116 million respectively. Henley Bartra, a joint venture between UK private equity giant Henley and developer Richard Barrett’s Bartra Capital, meanwhile paid €125 million for 500,000 sq.ft of offices and data centre assets distributed across the Citywest Business Campus in Dublin and Cork Airport Business Park.

The fast-growing private rented sector (PRS) market was a hive of activity with notable deals including the sale to DWS for €108 million of 214 apartments at the Cosgrave Property Group’s Fairways scheme in Dún Laoghaire, and the sale to Patrizia of 179 apartments at Marlet’s Mount Argus scheme in Harold’s Cross for €100 million.

Among the deals understood to have been agreed but not yet finalised are Starwood’s sale for €535 million plus of five prime Dublin office properties, known collectively as the Cedar portfolio to US private equity giant Blackstone; Tristan Capital Partners’ sale for €214 million of the 382 apartments in the Vert PRS platform to Avestus Capital Partners, and the €185 million acquisition by a fund managed by Davy Real Estate of St Stephen’s Green shopping centre.

Published Article

Monthly unemployment rate remains unchanged from October 2019

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The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2019 was 4.8%, remaining unchanged from October 2019 and down from 5.6% in November 2018. The seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 117,800 in November 2019, compared to 117,700 in October 2019. When compared to November 2018, there was an annual decrease of 17,600 in the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed.

Summary points for November

  • In November 2019 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.3% for males, remaining unchanged from October 2019, and down from 5.6% in November 2018.
  • The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for females was 4.2% in November 2019, down from 4.3% in October 2019, and down from 5.7% in November 2018.
  • The seasonally adjusted number of males unemployed in November 2019 was 70,600 compared to 69,700 in October 2019. In November 2019 the seasonally adjusted number of females unemployed was 47,100 compared to 48,000 in October 2019.
  • The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 years (youth unemployment rate) was 12.5% in November 2019 up from 12.2% in October 2019.

CSO Reports

Retail Sales volume decreased by 0.5% in October 2019

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The volume of retail sales decreased 0.5% in October when compared to September on a seasonally adjusted basis and increased by 3.0% on an annual basis. When Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales decreased by 2.1% in October 2019 and rose by 3.2% when compared with October 2018.

The sectors with the largest month on month volume decreases were Other Retail Sales (-9.3%) and Fuel (-5.2%).  The sectors with the largest monthly volume increases were Pharmaceuticals, Medical & Cosmetic Articles (8.1%) and Clothing, Footwear & Textiles (3.0%).

There was a decrease of 1.0% in the value of retail sales in October 2019 when compared with September 2019 and there was an annual increase of 1.4% when compared with October 2018. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was a decrease of 2.4% in the value of retail sales in the month and an increase of 0.5% in the annual figure.

CSO Reports

Hollister to open store at Blanchardstown Centre

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Hollister is set to become the latest retailer to join the line-up at the Blanchardstown Centre.

The American clothing brand has agreed a 10-year lease for a 582 sq.m (6,265 sq.ft) unit at the hugely-successful Dublin scheme.

Hollister will join JD Sports who signed up last year for a 1,100 sq.m (11,800 sq.ft) store within a 55,000 sq.ft extension that is under construction. Distributed across two levels adjoining Blanchardstown’s central mall, the development will comprise eight new retail units upon completion next year.

Commenting on Hollister’s decision to locate at Blanchardstown, Pat Nash, managing director of Multi Ireland & UK, said: “This signing underlines the growth of our offering and our ability to provide the broadest retailing choice in both our retail parks and our covered malls.”

Separately, Fingal County Council has granted planning permission for the development of an additional 3,200 sq.m (35,000 sq.ft) extension at Blanchardstown’s Blue Mall entrance.

Existing eateries

This space is being earmarked for the provision of a number of new restaurants ranging in size from 142 sq.m to 861 sq.m (1,528 sq.ft to 9,267 sq.ft). The extension will be located within close proximity to the Odeon cineplex and several of Blanchardstown’s existing eateries including Nando’s Milano and Eddie Rockets.

Developed originally by Stephen Vernon’s Green Property in 1996, the Blanchardstown Centre is acknowledged as one of Ireland’s foremost and most successful retail and leisure operations with more than 16.5 million visitors annually. The scheme includes more than 180 stores and is anchored by Dunnes Stores, Marks & Spencer, Penneys and Debenhams.

Bannon are delighted to be part of the Blue Mall extension with strong interest from both National & International F&B operators.

Published Article

Employment increases by 2.4% in year to Q3 2019

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There was an annual increase in employment of 2.4% or 53,700 in the year to the third quarter of 2019, bringing total employment to 2,326,900. This compares with an annual increase of 2.0% or 45,000 in employment in the previous quarter and an increase of 3.0% or 66,700 in the year to Q3 2018.

CSO Reports

Residential property prices rise by 1.1% in the year to September

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Residential property prices increased by 1.1% nationally in the year to September. This compares with an increase of 2.0% in the year to August and an increase of 8.5% in the twelve months to September 2018.

In Dublin, residential property prices decreased by 1.3% in the year to September – house prices decreased by 1.5% and apartments decreased by 0.2%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in Fingal at 1.5%, while Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown saw a decline of 6.8%.

Residential property prices in Ireland excluding Dublin were 3.6% higher in the year to September, with house prices up by 3.4% and apartments by 4.8%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the Border at 11.8%, while the smallest rise was recorded in the Mid-East at 0.2%.

Overall Decline

Overall, the national index is 16.9% lower than its highest level in 2007. Dublin residential property prices are 21.4% lower than their February 2007 peak, while residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 20.0% lower than their May 2007 peak.

Recovery

Property prices nationally have increased by 85.3% from their trough in early 2013. Dublin residential property prices have risen 94.7% from their February 2012 low, whilst residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 84.0% higher than at the trough, which was in May 2013.

CSO reports

Petstop in Limerick wins AIBMS Retail Excellence Awards

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BIG congrats to Petstop Ltd, in Bannon managed Limerick One Shopping Park for winning Pet Store of the Year and the Top 5 Store award at the AIBMS Retail Excellence Awards on Saturday night! Great to see the store doing so well a year on from leasing the space through Bannon!

Carraig Donn opens in The Square Tallaght

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Carraig Donn are delighted to open their brand new store in The Square Tallaght today from 11am, where they are offering 20% off full price stock, goodie bags for the first 50 customers plus more exclusive opening offers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diffney opens pop up shop in The Square Tallaght

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Dublin’s largest menswear fashion Diffney is now open on Level 1 in The Square Tallaght.

 

Monthly unemployment rate of 4.8% October 2019

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The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October 2019 was 4.8%, down from 4.9% in September 2019 and down from 5.7% in October 2018. The seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 117,300 in October 2019, compared to 118,100 in September 2019.  When compared to October 2018, there was an annual decrease of 19,400 in the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed.

Summary points for October

  • In October 2019 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.2% for males, down from 5.3% in September 2019, and down from 5.6% in October 2018.
  • The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for females was 4.4% in October 2019, remaining unchanged from September 2019, and down from 5.9% in October 2018.
  • The seasonally adjusted number of males unemployed in October 2019 was 68,600 compared to 69,200 in September 2019. In October 2019 the seasonally adjusted number of females unemployed was 48,700 compared to 48,900 in September 2019.
  • The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 years (youth unemployment rate) was 12.3% in October 2019 up from 12.2% in September 2019.

CSO reports

Retail Sales volume increased by 4.3% in September 2019

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The volume of retail sales increased 4.3% in September when compared to August on a seasonally adjusted basis and increased by 4.2% on an annual basis. When Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales increased by 2.3% in September 2019 and rose by 4.7% when compared with September 2018.

The sectors with the largest month on month volume increases were Hardware, Paints & Glass (8.8%) and Motor Trades (8.4%). The sectors with the largest monthly volume decreases were Department Stores (-2.2%) and Clothing, Footwear & Textiles (-2.2%).

There was an increase of 3.8% in the value of retail sales in September 2019 when compared with August 2019 and there was an annual increase of 2.8% when compared with September 2018. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was an increase of 2.0% in the value of retail sales in the month and an increase of 2.1% in the annual figure.

CSO Reports

NAMA to select bidder for Poolbeg site by end of March

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The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) plans to have selected a preferred bidder for a controlling stake in the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin by the end of March next year.

In its quarterly update to the Minister for Finance, NAMA said the so-called Poolbeg West Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) could provide up to 3,500 residential units and 1 million sq.ft of commercial development.

A school site and community and public open spaces will also be included in the project.

Last July, NAMA invited interested parties to bid for a majority 80% shareholding in a NAMA group entity, which would ultimately own the site in Ringsend.

The body is seeking bids of more than €125 million for the property.

Earlier this year An Bord Pleanala formally approved plans for the area which had been lodged under a fast-track mechanism.

It has been reported that a number of local and international property groups have submitted offers for the stake.

The quarterly update also revealed that over the six months to the end of June, NAMA recorded a profit after tax of €48m.

The organisation also exceeded its deleveraging targets and generated €500m in cash during the period by selling assets and loans, the report said.

From the end of June to September 20, a further €200m in cash was generated.

That brings to €44.7bn the total amount of cash produced by NAMA since inception.

In relation to its strategic objective of facilitating the delivery of high standard office accommodation in the Dublin Docklands SDZ, NAMA said strategies have been approved for all of its sites in the area and planning permission received.

The Agency originally held an interest in approximately three quarters of all 22 acres of developable land in the SDZ.

In total it expects that 4.2m sq.ft of commercial space and 2,183 residential units will be produced when the sites have been fully developed.

The report also said that NAMA has facilitated the delivery of 14,908 residential units between the start of 2014 and August 2019.

A further 6,248 units are either currently under construction or have secured planning permission.

Sites with a delivery capacity of over 12,932 units are either in the planning system, a planning application is in preparation or pre-planning consultations are underway.

“NAMA is also funding pre-planning and feasibility work on 2 other sites under the control of NAMA debtors and receivers which are estimated to have a delivery capacity of 11,791 units,” it said.

The organisation also claimed to have delivered 2,544 social housing units by the end of June, beating its target of 2,000 units.

Published Article

Smyths Toys now the most successful Irish retailer abroad

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The filing of its accounts confirmed last week that Smyths Toys is already making a financial return on its deal last year to acquire the central European operations of Toys R Us.

The family-owned group is now – individually and collectively – profitable in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That surely makes Smyths the most successful ever Irish retailer abroad.

The two biggest indigenous Irish grocers, Dunnes Stores and Musgrave, are larger, more storied, family-owned operations than Smyths. Yet the toy retailer has succeeded abroad where they have failed.

Dunnes and Musgrave both have operations in Spain, but in recent years both effectively abandoned their forays into Britain.

Smyths, meanwhile, has completely conquered the British market, opening more than 100 large retail outlets there in a little over a decade, vanquishing its specialist rivals. Its UK sales are now about €675 million.

Its prospects for maintaining growth in Britain are likely to slow as Brexit keeps sterling weakened, and Smyths runs out of unserviced locations to open new stores. As it already dominates the specialist Irish toys market, Smyths’ most obvious avenue for further growth became Europe.

The global insolvency last year of Toys R Us provided Smyths with a golden opportunity to buy out of bankruptcy the German-Swiss-Austrian stores of its US rival. The accounts filed last Friday show it paid less than €62 million to gain control of more than 90 outlets, which made Smyths profits of almost €14 million in 2018.

As it fine tunes them to better fit its sophisticated big box retailing model, their financial contribution may improve further.

The wider Smyths group is now on course for annual sales of close to €1.4 billion. Despite the success of its foreign forays, the group still made an annual profit of just €36 million.

With margins of less than 3%, Smyths may be tempted to expand its footprint even further if it wants to keep growing profits in years to come.

Published Article

Dunnes keeps top spot in supermarket rankings

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Brexit and the recent wet weather failed to dampen consumer confidence here over the last few weeks as grocery sales grew by 3.3% in the 12 weeks to October 6.

New figures from Kantar show that Dunnes has now been the country’s biggest retailer for a full year as it increased its market share of the supermarket sector to 22.5%, up from 22.1% the same time last year.

Kantar said Dunnes’ continued success, evidenced by 5.5% sales growth in the past 12 weeks, has largely been driven by its Shop & Save voucher campaign.

Meanwhile, SuperValu passed Tesco to take the number two spot for the first time since December 2018.

Kantar said that SuperValu has enjoyed larger basket sizes and growth in some of its core categories in the latest 12 week period.

Charlotte Scott, consumer insight director at Kantar, noted that both Dunnes and SuperValu have benefited from an out of season boom in sales of cleaning products.

“Shoppers have been indulging in a spot of seasonal autumn cleaning, perhaps thanks to the popularity of internet sensation Mrs Hinch and being kept indoors by the recent wet weather,” Ms Scott said.

She said people have spent an additional €7.2m on household cleaning in the past 12 weeks, which is up 5.9% on last year and driven by Ireland’s two largest retailers.

Meanwhile, despite falling behind SuperValu in the retailer rankings, Tesco enjoyed a return to growth this period, with shoppers making an extra trip compared to last year.

Kantar noted that confectionery has been a key category for Tesco, and is growing at an impressive 31.1% rate.

Charlotte Scott said that Tesco’s promotion on tubs of sweets, pricing them at €3.99, has proved particularly popular and it has even had to put quotas in place to limit shoppers to a maximum of four per person.

And Aldi reached a new record market share at 12.6% in the latest 12 week period under review. It saw an additional 21,000 shoppers through its doors, with a particular push to target young families.

Meanwhile, Lidl’s performance at a total level has also improved, with sales up 4.9% and its market share increasing to 11.9%.

Kantar noted that while Lidl’s existing shoppers are visiting more often, and spending more when they do, penetration has dropped slightly by 0.4%.

Published Article

McGarrell Reilly plans new shops at Lusk Village Quarter

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McGarrell Reilly’s plans for a new €75m Lusk Village Quarter in Lusk, Co Dublin, have been amended to include eight units with a combined 1,000 sq m for use as retail, restaurant and café outlets. Its plans also include a 2,500 sq.m supermarket that will be let to the discount operator Lidl, which will be the quarter’s retail anchor.

Lidl expects to be operating on site by December 2020, subject to the granting of amendments to the permission.

The amendments will also allow for two or three other retail units comprising 300 sq.m as well as parking spaces for 128 cars.

Sean Reilly is executive chairman of the development company and James Quinlan of Bannon is handling the commercial lettings.

Demand for these shopping facilities is reflected in a retail impact assessment conducted on behalf of McGarrell Reilly which shows over 85% of Lusk residents leave the area to do shopping.

Amenities will also include a crèche, a public square with a newly commissioned art piece, a village green and a playground. Spanning 15 acres, the project will accommodate over 150 new family homes. Its first phase will provide 56 homes at Station Road, which are now on sale, including 18 social and affordable homes. McGarrell Reilly has spent over €100m to date in Lusk and delivered over 700 homes to the area since the late 1990s.

Article

IPUT granted permission for €75m centre in Carrickmines

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Planning permission has been granted for a large new retail and residential development in south Dublin, despite strong opposition from the owners of the Dundrum Town Centre.

An Bord Pleanála has rejected an appeal by several parties including the Dundrum Retail Limited Partnership against the decision of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to approve a €75 million project that will form part of the existing retail park and office development at The Park in Carrickmines.

The developer IPUT has plans for a neighbourhood shopping centre including two supermarkets, retail warehouses, restaurant, café, seven-screen cinema, crèche, offices, car showroom, medical centre and indoor skydiving facility as well as 130 apartments on a 10.5 hectare site close to the M50.

The overall development will extend to almost 84,000 sq m in four blocks extending in height from two to six storeys.

Commenting on the ruling, IPUT said it was “a major step forward in realising our ambition to reinforce Carrickmines Park as the leading out-of-town retail destination in Dublin”.

The development was also opposed by the owners of the cinema multiplex in the Dundrum Town Centre as well as Olivia Buckley, a Fianna Fáil candidate for the Dundrum area in the recent local elections.

DRLP, which is a joint venture between UK property group Hammerson and German insurer Allianz, said it was not opposed to the new development in Carrickmines in principle.

However, it claimed the proposed level of retail floor space was excessive for a neighbourhood centre particularly given there was no significant immediate residential catchment population to justify its scale.

DRLP said the proposed cinema and leisure uses would undermine the viability of existing town and district centres in south Dublin and represented a material contravention of the council’s development plan as well as running contrary to a range of regional and national planning policies.

Ms Buckley opposed the development claiming there was no requirement for another large retail centre or massive cinema complex in south Dublin and expressed concern it would impact on other nearby centres including Dundrum, Stillorgan and Dún Laoghaire.

Oversubscribed

She claimed retail warehousing was already oversubscribed in the capital, while the extension of The Park would also create serious traffic congestion on the M50.

Ms Buckley said it was disingenuous to call what was proposed a neighbourhood centre and branded such a description as “seriously misleading and inaccurate”.

Movies@Dundrum claimed the proposed multi-screen cinema would impact on its business when it relied on the planning system to protect its investment.

However, IPUT said there was a clear and long-standing need for a neighbourhood centre in Carrickmines as it was located in a significant growth area.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council also said the development was an appropriate location for the centre as it would cater for new and emerging communities.

In its ruling, An Bord Pleanála said the centre would make a positive contribution to the urban character of the area.

The board said concerns relating to noise, vibration, dust and traffic could be satisfactorily mitigated by various measures and claimed the proposed development would have significant, direct, positive effects for the local population.

“Provision of neighbourhood centre facilities will reduce trips from the area to other locations,” it admitted.

IPUT successfully appealed a number of planning conditions imposed by the local authority that sought to deliver the project on a phased basis, which the developer claimed were overly prescriptive.

However, IPUT failed to overturn the condition which required it to construct a link road to Ballyogan Road before any other construction work began. IPUT claimed it was “unreasonable and unnecessary” and could impact on funding and the viability of the project.

It secured some minor concessions in its challenge to the scale of development contributions imposed by the local authority, which totalled almost €13 million.

Published Article

Northbrook Road offices for rent at €45 per sq.ft

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Companies priced out of Dublin’s core central business district and the prime postal code areas of Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 will be interested in the opportunity to locate at 6 Northbrook Road.

Situated within a five-minute walk of Leeson Street and Ranelagh Road, this Victorian property has been thoroughly refurbished to provide more than 9,400 sq.ft of office accommodation over four floors at a competitive €45 per square foot.

Quite apart from the immediate cost benefit available to the prospective occupier, 6 Northbrook Road offers the benefit of modern open-plan and cellular office accommodation complemented by numerous of the building’s original Victorian features, including stained-glass windows and an impressive central staircase.

In terms of its facilities, the property’s specification includes: Cat 5E cabling, generous floor-to-ceiling heights throughout, recessed spot and ornate feature lighting, gas-fired central heating, floor boxes and part perimeter trunking, tea stations, solid timber flooring in part, shower rooms, an eight-person passenger lift and ladies’ and gents’ toilet facilities on all levels.

Externally, the building features a landscaped set-down area, a communal summer garden to the rear, 11 car-parking spaces and bike storage.

The property is well connected in terms of public transport. Charlemont Luas stop is just 450m away while the quality bus corridor on nearby Leeson Street Upper is served by 10 Dublin Bus routes. The surrounding area offers numerous amenities including restaurants, cafes and bars such as the Sussex, Canal Bank Cafe, Dillingers, the Butcher Grill, Bunsen, and Cinnamon.

Rebecca Jones, who is handling the letting on behalf of Bannon, says she expects to see “significant interest” from occupiers looking for a location for their headquarters within close proximity to Dublin’s central business district.

Contact our Office Department today for more information on 01 6477900

View PDF Brochure

Published Article

South Dublin site with planning permission for 203 homes seeks €14m

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Bannon are guiding a price of €14 million for a ready-to-go development site with full planning permission for 203 homes at Carrickmines, in south Dublin.

Extending to an area of 10.38 acres (4.2 hectares), the land is located off Glenamuck Road South, and 900 metres from the Park Carrickmines retail park. The site is highly accessible to both the M50 motorway and the Luas green line service at Ballyogan, offering easy access to both Dublin city centre and beyond.

While planning permission was obtained in June 2019 for a residential scheme comprising 173 apartments and 30 houses, a feasibility study prepared by Ferreira Architects in advance of the sale indicates the site’s potential for a private rented scheme of 333 apartments.

Full details of the existing permitted development can be accessed at the dedicated strategic housing development (SHD) website, www.glenamuckshd.ie. In addition to the residential units the permission also provides for 299 sq.m of communal/amenity space, a 480 sq.m creche facility and an 84 sq.m retail unit.

A further full suite of information which includes site investigations, drawings and planning permission details can be found in the data room, www.glenamuckroad.com.

Contact Niall Brereton today on 01 6477900 to discuss.

Published Article

Swords Pavilions attracts new Rituals boutique to North Dublin

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Hammerson and Irish Life, joint owners of the Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre, have announced that luxury bath, body and home brand, Rituals Cosmetics will be opening its fourth stand-alone store in Ireland at Swords Pavilions, in the heart of North Dublin. Located close to the newly opened Superdry and JD Sports stores the 800 sq ft boutique will open on Wednesday 4th September 2019, enhancing the centre’s premium offer.

Founded in 2000 by Raymond Cloosterman, Rituals Cosmetics is the first brand in the world to combine home and body cosmetics, with an expansive product line including body care, scented candles, fragrance sticks, assorted teas, natural skin care and soulwear.

This latest announcement follows the opening of Swords Pavilions’ new dining quarter earlier this year with American burger chain Five Guys and well-loved pizza brand, Milano having already opened restaurants in the scheme. In July modern Persian kitchen Zaytoon also launched its new format restaurant at the centre.

This will be Rituals’ second stand-alone store opening in Ireland with Hammerson, having signed for a boutique in Dundrum Town Centre which launched in September 2018. The brand also has an outlet store in designer shopping destination, Kildare Village, owned by Hammerson through their partnership with Value Retail.

Simon Betty, Hammerson Director of Retail Ireland, said: “Rituals is a great addition to the brand offer at Swords Pavilions, demonstrating the continued demand from premium brands for high quality retail space in strong consumer catchments such as Swords Pavilions. Lettings such as this are a prime example of our strategy to ensure the centre remains the main retail and leisure destination in North Dublin.”

Rituals UK & Ireland Managing Director, Penny Grivea, said: “We are so excited to be opening another stand-alone store in Dublin at Swords Pavilions, allowing us to introduce the Rituals experience to as many customers as possible. Whether it is enjoying a hand massage at the water island or simply a cup of herbal tea upon arrival, the team can’t wait to help the Pavilions customers slow down and transform daily routines into meaningful rituals. This opening marks an exciting time for the brand, building upon our existing retail presence in Ireland.”

Published Article

Danish retailer JYSK has ramped up its Irish plans

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DANISH HOME RETAIL brand JYSK is planning to open 40 Irish stores within the next five years, effectively more than doubling its previous expansion plan for the country.

The 40-year-old Scandi retailer opened its first Irish store in Naas, Co Kildare in April and has since opened in three more locations. Earlier this year, JYSK – which is pronounced “yusk” – said it was planning 15 stores across the Republic.

The company has since revised these plans and said it now aims to open in 40 locations here over the next three to five years, which it says will help its Irish operation generate annual sales of up to €70 million.

To help source potential locations, JYSK – which sells a range of home furnishings and mattresses – is planning to meet with potential landlords at a showcase in Dublin in mid-September after encountering difficulties with its growth plan here.

Poul Erik Larsen, JYSK’s expansion director, said it has been more time-consuming and expensive to open new stores in Ireland compared to other European locations.

“We have noted that in other parts of Europe, we can issue and sign a lease contract within two to four weeks, whereas in Ireland, this is taking up to 16 weeks in some cases,” Larsen said.

“To achieve the volume of stores we want in the Irish market within two to three years, we need to secure a steady flow of new locations and that is something we’re actively pursuing right now.”

Published Article

Dunnes Stores opens upscale food hall at Ilac Centre

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Hammerson and Irish Life, joint owners of the Ilac Centre, have announced that Dunnes Stores has opened its new, premium food hall in Dublin city’s Ilac Centre, bringing some of Ireland’s leading artisan food brands to the city centre.

The new 2,400 sq.m (25,800 sq.ft) food hall, located on the ground floor of the Ilac Central Mall near H&M and River Island, will offer Baxter & Greene’s freshly cooked stone-baked pizza and hot roast sandwiches, artisan cheeses from Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, health foods from Nourish, a premium Fishmonger and an array of other high-quality food options. In addition, Café Sol will deliver great tasting coffee and a selection of pastries to have in store or take-away. For customers wanting to add to their garden, Diarmuid Gavin’s Outdoor Spaces has a wide selection of house plants, trees, pots and gardening tools.

The hall will be open seven days a week, 8.30am to 8pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and until 9pm on Thursday. On Sunday it will be open from 10am until 7pm.

Simon Betty, Hammerson Director of Retail Ireland, said: “This is the latest step in our ongoing plans to enhance the dining and leisure experience at the Ilac Centre, as we continue to deliver new and exciting brand openings for our customers to enjoy. We’ve seen the success of Dunnes’ food halls all around the country, so we are pleased to showcase their best-in-class produce which will be the perfect fit for this popular destination.”

The new Dunnes Stores food hall follows the recent announcement of a major renovation of the Ilac Central Square which will deliver three new restaurants, a café, a new 3,000 sq.ft retail unit and other significant enhancements. The project will also reconfigure the unit at the Coles Lane entrance to facilitate late-night trading as well as new planting and paintwork around the lane.

Published Article

Ibec reports we are now at the top of the global business cycle

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Ibec, the group that represents Irish business, today published its new Q3 Quarterly Economic Outlook, which forecasts GDP growth of 4% in 2019. The Outlook says we are now at the top of the global business cycle, with Irish households clearly benefitting from strong growth. This growth dividend has increased real, after-tax household income in the economy by one-quarter in just five years. Rising incomes are underpinned by exceptional levels of business investment and related employment effects.

For 2020, Ibec forecasts that growth will moderate to 2.7% as both the Irish and global economies reach a mature stage of the business cycle. Our forecasts assume a deal on Brexit is reached. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, we expect significant impacts from continued depreciation in the value of sterling, cancelled investment, falling consumer confidence, rising costs and significant trade disruption. The economy may still grow, but growth would more than halve in 2020 and employment growth could fall below 0.5%. Ibec has called for October’s budget to include new and far-reaching state aid supports to assist vulnerable companies.

Commenting on the report, Ibec Chief Economist, Gerard Brady, said: “Every indicator of the Irish economy tells the same story. The economy is continuing to grow rapidly through a period of great uncertainty. This growth is also clearly benefitting households. The economy is now close to full employment, with moderate inflation and the strongest increases in real living standards since the late 1990s. This growth dividend has increased real, after-tax, household income in the economy by one-quarter in just five years. This has been matched by no other economy in the developed world.

“However, the story is not all positive. 2018 was the first year where the value of Irish indigenous exports fell since 2011. This trend has been reversed in the early months of 2019 driven by continued increases in production in both the alcohol and dairy sectors. Both sectors will face challenges over the coming year due to US tariffs and Brexit. Ibec analysis has shown that Irish goods are the most exposed, on a per capita basis, to the proposed US tariffs on EU goods. Irish exports worth €818 million could be hit by new tariffs.

“Even in the event of a Brexit breakthrough, there are reasons to believe that growth will slow over the coming years. The global trading environment is becoming more difficult for small open economies due to rising trade tensions. The global economy is also close to the top of the business cycle. These factors are now cutting through to the real economy in Europe. BusinessEurope analysis shows that that our fellow business associations in twenty-four of the twenty-seven other EU member states expect a slowdown in growth in 2020 relative to 2019.”

Published article

Staff from Bannon volunteer with Alone Ireland

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Staff from Bannon are excited to volunteer their day today to Alone Ireland.

The day will be spent on a variety of activities which included general maintenance work, decorating and gardening in Willie Bermingham Place, Kilmainham. This is a ALONE development which provide assisted housing to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Thank you to the very generous contributions from Bannon partners we were able to donate supplies Lynch Interact and MCR Group.

In 2018 Bannon staff volunteered for 2 days with Alone. The first day was spent carrying out cleaning, maintenance and painting to residential units which were acquired by Alone for permanent housing for older people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

On the second day, Bannon staff carried out grounds maintenance to one of Alone’s residential developments, this helped tidy up the landscape areas and provide the residents with a colourful, safe area to enjoy.  See us in action!

This year, Bannon staff are gearing up to volunteer with Alone again and are tasked with more gardening and maintenance on the 16th August.

Not only do these volunteering days give back to our local community, it reminds us of the importance of caring for our elderly and the challenges that some face in the older years.

Peter McVerry Trust’s annual cycle is celebrating its 30th anniversary and looking for people to take part

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The Peter McVerry Trust’s Wexford Cycle is looking for people to take part next month in order to raise money for homelessness.

Weaving its way from UCD to Wexford Town, the hugely popular cycle passes through some of Wicklow and Wexford’s most scenic spots.

This year marks the event’s 30th anniversary and will see around 400 cyclists take part, a far cry from the original event, when just four students from UCD set off to raise money for the homeless charity.

The cycle is geared up to provide a fun day out for cyclists of all abilities and provides a great opportunity to experience the splendour of the sunny South East.

The event is rounded off with a BBQ and music in Clayton Whites Hotel in Wexford Town, where participants can relax and enjoy the post-cycle celebrations.

With over 10,000 people currently experiencing homelessness, the Peter McVerry trust provides well needed support to all that need it. The cycle takes place on the 14th of September.

If you wish to take part please click here to their website for further details.

 

Published article

Dublin Airport Central 5K Fun Run

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Another great 5km run thanks to Dublin Airport Central. One of many events hosted by Dublin Airport Central for tenants of the campus.

#connectyourbusinesstotheworld

Marks and Spencer to anchor €60 million city development

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THERE has been a widespread welcome for news of a proposed development at Arthur’s Quay in which Marks and Spencer would be the anchor tenant.

Limerick’s Tiernan Properties has signed heads of agreement with the British retail giants to become the anchor tenant for a major €60 million development on the city’s Arthur’s Quay.

Chief executive Michael Tiernan told the Limerick Post that the plans are “at an early stage but we will now hopefully have a discussion with Limerick City and County Council and subject to a successful outcome to those discussions, we will move forward.”

The development will be dependent on other factors, mostly delivery of infrastructure outlined in the Limerick 2030 plan which has already been adopted and acted on by the local authority.

The new development will involve a site currently occupied by the former Limerick Tourism office at Arthur’s Quay, but public amenities in the park itself will not be affected.

The British chain has been linked to various sites in Limerick city and suburbs over several decades, but has no outlet in the area.

The clothing, food and homewares retailer has now agreed to be the main tenant in the proposed 18,580sq m (200,000sq ft) mixed-use development.

Tiernan Properties said there had been “significant interest” from other major brands in the project, which is expected to boost footfall in the centre of Limerick.

The developers said getting a “key target” like Marks & Spencer on board “validates the wider project” and would prove pivotal for Limerick.

“We have a lot of work to do but as this is a development in line with the aims of the 2030 plan, we believe it would support that plan,” Mr Tiernan said.

Limerick Chamber chief executive Dee Ryan said the announcement that the Arthur’s Quay development is to go ahead was another major boost for the city and region.

“This is more great news for Limerick and the wider city region. To have this and the Ryder Cup 2026 announced for Limerick on the same day is incredible. It shows where the city, county and region is headed.”

“This huge injection of private investment in retail is an important signal of market confidence and ongoing work to revitalise Limerick city centre. We are powering ahead in so many respects as we develop a thriving urban experience for people who live in, work and visit Limerick.

“The retail community, in particular, welcome a boost exactly like this to help attract more people from Limerick and neighbouring counties into the city,” she added

Mayor Michael Sheahan said that along with all the other plans for Limerick, the multi-million euro investment by Tiernan Properties would help revitalise the city centre.”

“Confirmation that Marks and Spencer is to be the anchor tenant will see the company open its very first store in the mid-west region. It has been a long time coming and I am delighted that such a sought after retailer is opening a store here,” Mayor Sheahan concluded.

Published Article

Gateway Retail Park Development

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(before and after)

We are very excited to announce that we have just completed stage 1 works to our existing car park as part of the Phase 2 development at Gateway Retail Park.

JYSK store opens in Drogheda Retail Park

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Scandinavian furniture and homeware chain JYSK opened their second Irish store this morning at Drogheda Retail Park as people queued up to get into the new JYSK store which was officially opened at 9.00 am.

Founded in Denmark in 1979, JYSK , (it’s pronounced “Yusk”), is a global retail chain with more than 2,700 stores worldwide selling everything for the home, it has a turnover of €3.6 billion a year and employs some 23,000 people.

The Drogheda JYSK store is the group’s second in Ireland, it opened its first branch in Naas in April and stores are also scheduled to open in Navan later this month and Portlaoise in August.

Intersport Elverys opens in Thurles Shopping Centre

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Intersport Elverys who proudly invested in Tipperary GAA, are delighted to announce they have officially opened their new store in Thurles Shopping Centre with the widest range of GAA, running and training gear for kids and adults.

Intersport Elverys, in partnership with Tipperary GAA invited fans young and old to meet the Inter County players and browse the new store. There was exclusive interviews, fun activities and exclusive discounts on the day.

They were joined by Tipperary players Seamie Callanan, Noel McGrath and Ronan Maher on the day who took pictures and signed autographs with fans.

Elverys

Over 300,000 jobs linked to Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland in 2017

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Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017, a thematic publication exploring the impact of FDI and globalisation, shows over 300,000 jobs are directly linked to foreign investment into Ireland.

Despite a decrease of €54bn in the stock of Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland between 2016 and 2017, at €744bn (253% of GDP) investment still remains high in comparison to other EU countries showing the highly globalised nature of the Irish economy.

Employment figures show growth across all sectors since 2012, with the largest growth (28%) recorded in the scientific and technical activities sector. In 2017 average wages in foreign-owned multinational enterprises (MNEs), at €50,000, were significantly higher than those paid by domestic firms (€33,000), but lower than those paid by Irish MNEs (€57,000). All sectors experienced wage growth, with the largest growth in the information and communications sector and the administration and support services sector, which experienced 26% growth and 20% growth respectively between 2012-2017.

This is the second time the CSO has published this experimental publication linking data across statistical domains. Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017 looks at the role of investment into Ireland, its associated globalisation and its role in the Irish domestic economy. This publication brings together several different data sources designed to complement the annual and quarterly Foreign Direct Investment statistics presented in our International Accounts.

New to this year’s publication is a breakdown of gender balance in FDI firms and an analysis of the influence of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs), distinguishing between actual investment in firms operating in Ireland and funds passing through via SPEs.

CSO Reports

Residential property prices rise by 3.1% in the year to April

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Residential property prices increased by 3.1% nationally in the year to April. This compares with an increase of 3.8% in the year to March and an increase of 13.3% in the twelve months to April 2018.

In Dublin, residential property prices rose by 0.5% in the year to April, with no change in house prices and apartments rising by 2.2%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in South Dublin at 4.0%, while Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown saw the greatest decline in house prices (1.5%).

Residential property prices in Ireland excluding Dublin were 5.6% higher in the year to April, with house prices up by 5.8% and apartments by 5.9%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in property prices was the Border at 11.4%, while the smallest rise was recorded in the Mid-East at 1.5%.

Overall Decline

Overall, the national index is 18.5% lower than its highest level in 2007. Dublin residential property prices are 22.5% lower than their February 2007 peak, while residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 21.8% lower than their May 2007 peak.

Recovery

Property prices nationally have increased by 81.9% from their trough in early 2013. Dublin residential property prices have risen 91.9% from their February 2012 low, whilst residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 79.9% higher than at the trough, which was in May 2013.

CSO reports

Boots signs up for flagship Galway store in Gateway Retail Park

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Boots has become the latest major retailer to sign up at the landmark Gateway Retail Park in Galway.

The pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer has agreed to take a new 700 sq.m (7,500 sq.ft) premises at the scheme.

Boots are understood to be paying a rent in excess of €35 per sq.ft per annum for its new store which is under construction as part of the second phase of the retail park. Boots will be located immediately adjacent to the new branch of Harvey Norman.

Due for delivery in the first quarter of 2020, the second phase at Gateway will comprise an additional 11,148 sq.m (120,000 sq.ft) of retail space offering eight new retailers, three new food and beverage operators and a gym. Current tenants at the Gateway park include Dunnes Stores, Next, New Look, McSharry Pharmacy and B&Q.

Gateway’s asset manager, Paddy O’Connor of Sigma Retail Partners, believes Boots’ decision to locate at the scheme further underpins it as the destination of choice for retailers in Galway.

Darren Peavoy of Bannon who handled the letting on behalf of the landlord said the remaining units at the scheme are all under offer.

Published Article

Employment increases by 3.7% in year to Q1 2019

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There was an annual increase in employment of 3.7% or 81,200 in the year to the first quarter of 2019, bringing total employment to 2,301,900. This compares with an annual increase of 2.3% or 50,500 in employment in the previous quarter and an increase of 2.9% or 62,400 in the year to Q1 2018.

Summary points for Q1 2019

The increase in total employment of 81,200 in the year to Q1 2019 was represented by an increase in full-time employment of 62,600 (+3.5%) and an increase in part-time employment of 18,600 (+4.1%).

On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment increased by 35,200 (+1.5%) over the previous quarter. This follows on from a seasonally adjusted increase in employment of 18,400 (+0.8%) in Q4 2018, an increase of 10,900 (+0.5%) in Q3 2018, an increase of 15,400 (+0.7%) in Q2 2018 and an increase of 7,400 (+0.3%) in Q1 2018.

Unemployment decreased by 18,600 (-14.0%) in the year to Q1 2019 bringing the total number of persons unemployed to 114,400. This is the twenty seventh quarter in succession where unemployment has declined on an annual basis.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 5.6% in Q4 2018 to 5.0% in Q1 2019, while the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed decreased by 14,300 to 120,300.

The long-term unemployment rate decreased from 2.1% to 1.7% over the year to Q1 2019. Long-term unemployment accounted for 35.7% of total unemployment in Q1 2019.

The total number of persons in the labour force in the first quarter of 2019 was 2,416,300, representing an increase of 62,600 (+2.7%) over the year. This compares with an annual labour force increase of 31,900 (+1.4%) in Q1 2018. The number of persons not in the labour force in Q1 2019 was 1,480,200, an increase of 9,900 (+0.7%) over the year.

Employment

The annual increase of 81,200 (+3.7%) in employment was represented by an increase of 30,800 (+2.5%) in male employment and an increase of 50,400 (+5.0%) in female employment over the year.

Employment increased in 12 of the 14 economic sectors over the year (excluding Not stated). The largest rates of increase were recorded in the Transportation and storage (+11.4% or +10,800) and the Administrative and support service activities (+10.6% or 10,500) sectors.

The overall employment rate among persons aged 15-64 was 69.3% in Q1 2019 compared to 67.9% in Q1 2018.

The number of employees in Q1 2019 was 1,966,800, up 99,300 (+5.3%) over the year. The number of self-employed persons decreased by 14,500 (-4.3%) over the year to 323,900.

Unemployment

Male unemployment decreased by 7,800 (-10.6%) to 65,900 over the year to Q1 2019, while female unemployment decreased by 10,700 (-18.1%) to 48,400 over the same period.

The overall unadjusted unemployment rate decreased from 5.7% to 4.8% over the year to Q1 2019.

In the year to Q1 2019, the number of persons classified as long-term unemployed decreased by 9,300 (-18.5%), bringing total long-term unemployment to 40,900. Short-term unemployment decreased by 9,500 (-11.9%) over the year to 70,300.

The unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds (youth unemployment rate) decreased from 12.5% to 10.9% over the year to Q1 2019.

A series of Monthly Unemployment statistics was first issued by the CSO in 2015. The most recent publication was issued in May 2019 for reference month April 2019. The Monthly Unemployment release contains a series of monthly unemployment rates and volumes. These series are based primarily on the LFS and are compiled in accordance with agreed international practice. Data for more recent periods for which no LFS benchmark is available is adjusted for trends in the Live Register. These statistics are the definitive measure of Monthly Unemployment and replaced the SUR (which has been discontinued).

The previously published seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment figures are now revised with the availability of new LFS benchmark unemployment estimates for Q1 2019. The seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate for March 2019 is now revised from 5.4% to 4.7%, while the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed is revised from 131,400 to 114,400.
The provisional estimate for April 2019 has also been revised with the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April 2019 revised from 5.4% to 4.6%, while the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed is revised from 129,700 to 112,500.

Labour force

As with employment, the number of persons in the labour force is also influenced by changes in the size of the working age population (demographic effect). Up to the start of 2008 this demographic effect had been adding at least 30,000 to the labour force on an annual basis, primarily driven by net inward migration. This demographic effect peaked at over 90,500 in the second quarter of 2007.

With the decline in inward migration the positive demographic effect started to fall in the second half of 2007 and continued to decline throughout 2008 and 2009 before becoming negative in Q3 2009. The negative demographic effect continued for each quarter until Q1 2014. The demographic effect has been positive since Q2 2014 and in Q1 2019 a positive demographic effect contributed an increase of 36,000 to the overall change in the labour force.

In addition to the demographic effect, the change in the size of the labour force is influenced by changes in participation. While the overall participation rate increased by 0.5 percentage points to 62.0% over the year, the net result of changes in individual age groups for the same period was a positive participation effect of 26,600.

Of those persons not in the labour force, the number classified as being in the potential additional labour force was 108,200 in the first quarter of 2019.

International Comparisons

The employment rate in Ireland increased by 0.8 percentage points to 69.1% over the year to Q4 2018. The employment rate in the EU-28 in Q4 2018 was 68.9%.

The unadjusted unemployment rate among the EU-28 countries in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 6.6%, while the comparable rate in Ireland was 5.4%. The highest unemployment rates among the EU-28 countries in Q4 2018 were recorded in Greece and Spain (18.7% and 14.5% respectively), while the lowest rates of 2.0% and 3.2% were recorded in the Czech Republic and Germany respectively.

The latest figures available at the time of finalising this release indicate that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the EU-28 for March 2019 was 6.4% compared to the revised seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate of 4.7% for Ireland for the same period.

CSO Reports

Irish Life in bid to grow retail business to €10bn

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Insurance giant Irish Life intends to double the size of its retail investment business over the next five years to €10bn. It also plans to acquire a number of residential developments, investing “hundreds of millions” in residential properties.

Irish Life acquired the sought-after Fernbank development in Dundrum, south Dublin, last year for €100m.

In an interview with the Sunday Independent, CEO David Harney said the company intends to conclude similar deals shortly. “I doubt we will be doing two deals like Fernbank every year, but if we’re doing one deal like it annually we would be pretty happy,” he said.

Harney also confirmed that the company lost out to Brewin Dolphin in its bid to purchase the wealth-management arm of Investec.

“We do think that in Ireland too many people have too much on deposit rather than in broad-based investments.

“We’ve grown our multi-asset portfolios into a €5bn business over the last five years and we’d love to double that over the next five,” he said.

Harney, who was speaking after the launch of the company’s new MyLife health improvement app, also signalled the company’s intention to acquire more wealth management businesses.

Published Article

Residential property prices rise by 3.9% in the year to March

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Residential property prices increased by 3.9% nationally in the year to March. This compares with an increase of 4.3% in the year to February and an increase of 12.6% in the twelve months to March 2018.

In Dublin, residential property prices rose by 1.2% in the year to March, with house prices rising by 0.7% and apartments by 2.5%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in South Dublin at 3.4%, while the lowest growth was in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown at 0.4%.

Residential property prices in Ireland excluding Dublin were 6.8% higher in the year to March, with house prices up by 6.7% and apartments by 8.6%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in property prices was the Mid-West at 11.9%, while the smallest rise was recorded in the Mid-East at 1.6%.

Overall Decline

Overall, the national index is 18.6% lower than its highest level in 2007. Dublin residential property prices are 22.3% lower than their February 2007 peak, while residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 22.3% lower than their May 2007 peak.

Recovery

Property prices nationally have increased by 81.6% from their trough in early 2013. Dublin residential property prices have risen 92.5% from their February 2012 low, whilst residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 78.8% higher than at the trough, which was in May 2013.

CSO reports

Irish retailers see encouraging start to 2019

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Irish retail sales values grew by 4.7% in the first quarter of the year when compared with the same period in 2018, aided by a ‘mild late winter’ and ‘early spring’, research showed.

While these figures are robust, it must be highlighted that in this period last year, Ireland found itself under a blanket of snow and was suffering the disruptive effects of Storm Emma, according to Retail Ireland latest Retail Monitor which the group published today.

“After a rocky fourth quarter of 2018, in which trade ebbed and flow almost by the day, retailers will be hoping that a level of consistency to trade can be found in 2019,” Thomas Burke, director of Retail Ireland, said.

“It is clear that retail sales patterns in the second half of 2018 were heavily impacted by Brexit related commentary.”

Brexit Extension

The Ibec group that represents the sector, highlighted in its report that an extension to the Brexit negotiating period until October seems to ‘have calmed nerves somewhat’.

“The daily game of brinkmanship is no longer leading news bulletins, and for hard-pressed Irish retailers this is good news. On the back of this we have seen an uptick in consumer sentiment as people’s worst fears of a crash out Brexit, have been allayed, at least for the moment.” Burke added.

There has also been a modest uptick in consumer confidence this quarter coming off the back of some respite from Brexit uncertainty which is reflected in the sales data.

Supermarkets and Convenience Stores

The report showed, that primary driver for volume over value growth continues to be ‘competitive action’ for supermarkets, with the battle for market share between multiples ‘very intense’ and the ‘slower but inexorable’ continuing growth of discounters also contributing to downward pressures.

A buoyant economy has been good news for the convenience sector, which is also in growth, the research indicated.

The Monitor also shows that while sales are up across almost all categories of retail, the ever-present trends of discounting and the continuing shift to online are also evident, particularly in retail categories such as computers and electrical goods and department stores.

In terms of the outlook for the remainder of the year, Burke highlighted that many businesses will have budgeted against the performance of Summer 2018.

“For those categories that are particularly reliant on good weather to drive footfall and sales, clearly this will prove challenging. With no guarantee of a similar prolonged spell of fine weather retailers will have to be creative if they are to achieve such heights once more.” he concluded.

Article

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