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IRISH SHOPPING CENTRES and offices worth a cool €120 million are up for grabs in a bid to get back some of the money the Bank of Scotland lent before it pulled out of the country.
Six shopping centres and one office block – making up one of the biggest sales ever to be offered in Ireland - are to be sold off in one big package branded the “spectrum portfolio” by joint agents Savills and Bannon.
Lloyds Banking, the parent company behind the Bank of Scotland (BoS), has put the properties on the market after putting in place managers to claw back some of the loans dished out during the Celtic Tiger years.
When it closed up shop in 2010, BoS said it had lent about €6 billion for Irish property development and 90 per cent of its debts in the country were “impaired”.
The portfolio’s marketeers are quoting a citing a cool €120 million as the going price for the seven properties, which generate an income of about €11 million from tenants including Tesco, Dunne’s Stores and Boots.
So what’s for sale?
The properties on the table include:
Centres get in strife
Many of the sales stem from owners and developers behind the retail centres running into strife as the Irish economy floundered.
Douglas Developments, which owned the Douglas Court Shopping Centre, was put into receivership in 2012 owing the Bank of Scotland over €80 million – despite the retail centre being valued at only €35 million.
Dundalk Retail Park owners Finnabair Estates went into receivership early the same year under interest payments of nearly €4 million a year to the Bank of Scotland and other lenders.
In Sligo, the Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank moved in on Quayside Shopping Centre in 2013 in an attempt to recover debts estimated at “tens of millions of euro”.
“A turning point”
But the agents believe the retail sector is “reaching a turning point” and better job conditions and increased sales were feeding into the industry.
“This hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors, who are now beginning to seek opportunities in this space,” they said.
READ: Bank of Scotland begins to ‘restructure’ Irish mortgages
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Bloomfields – the only worse shopping centre in Ireland is Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre.
Have you any proof of this?have you been to every shopping centre in the country?
Just last weekend I made my long awaited trip to Navan Town Centre. This completed my shopping centre tour of Ireland. So yes, I’ve been to every shopping centre in the country. Thanks for asking.
Have you been to Ballymun?
Oviously never visited crumlin shopping centre then either!
Oviously never visited crumlin shopping centre then either!
Sell as fast as possible to foreign investors before the new property bubble bursts.
Due to burst when water charges arrive, people suddenly realise that they are using about €350 a quarter with little reduction for children.
This is the straw that will break the camels back.
How stupid of them to try and sell at the right time, what idiots!
And what has water charges got to do with this story
Why @randompunter do you suggest they sell them at the WRONG time?id class that as stupid
neenee doesn’t get sarcasm. Must be fierce foreign altogether.
My apologies for missing the sarcasm please accept my apology and il be forever indebted to you.can you tell me the difference between “foreign” and “fierce foreign”?is it a distance thing?
Douglas Court Shopping Centre isn’t in “Cork City”, its in Douglas, Co. Cork
It’s all the one
Nenee are you fierce thick as well?
You see the picture above?
You see the water in it?
That’s the boundary between Cork City and Cork County.
When it’s that close to the edge of the city, it’s splitting hairs to say it’s not in Cork City. Come the promised boundary review in the next couple of years, it will almost certainly be moved into the city.
@Brendan, its “neenee” not “Nenee”
Thanks random.the irony of him correcting me on something when he’s wrong in his statement.
Jesus the way bank of Scotland are talking you would think it’s our fault that they bollixed up there loans. Maybe they should look a little closer to home to apportion blame. Get a hold of your loans adviser and string him or her up by the toes.
Thank you! I always enjoy reading your blog and all the information you share!
Thank everyone Welcome to http://www.firstlyof.com/Shopping
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