Fairgreen Shopping Centre for sale

You can buy just about anything at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow – even the shopping centre itself. That’s if you’ve got a spare €36 million hanging around. That’s because the Fairgreen has just been placed on the commercial property market, and CBRE, the agents handling the sale, are quoting that amount as a guide price for bids. 

The sale is on the instructions of Northern Ireland businessman Dr Gerard O’Hare, whose company owns The Fairgreen in Carlow and The Quays Shopping Centre in Newry, Co Down. Potential buyers are looking at an extensive 14-year-old commercial and retail development, complete with 762 car parking spaces on 13 acres, and with 95 per cent unit occupancy rate and an annual rental income in the region of €2.7 million. It attracts an estimated 100,000 shoppers per week.

Potential for expansion

Chief rent payers there include Argos (€265,000 p.a.), Next (€255,000), New Look (€220,000) and River Island (€145,000). Both Tesco and Heatons, in what was Phase 1 of the development, own their own stores there. Other tenants include Sam McCauley’s Chemists, Easons, Vera Moda, Jack & Jones, and in Phase 2, the eight-screen cinema operated by the IMC Group. The vendors even suggest there is scope to develop a third phase of a further 10,500 sq. m, subject to planning permission. They say it could involve an extension of the existing first phase, replacing the present row of shops on Barrack Street.