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Empty shops on Grafton Street

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  • 11-02-2013 3:38pm
    #1
    miamee
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 12,224 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Just took a quick stroll down Grafton Street at lunch time and noticed that aside from HMV, another few shops have closed....Zerep, Korky's, Halpenny Golf (formerly Richard Alan) and it's all starting to look a bit desolate at the top end of the street nearest the Green. Either I've been going round with my eyes closed or they have closed quite recently too.

    Has anyone any idea if there are replacements lined up yet? I would hate to see Grafton Street with too many empty units, it's the busiest street for tourists and coming up to tourist season soon with St. Patrick's Day only 5 weeks away.


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    #2
    bazza1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭bazza1


    Rents are too high!


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    #3
    The Master
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 14,320 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Master


    bazza1 wrote: »
    Rents are too high!

    Yep, it seems the owners prefer empty shops rather than lower rents


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    #4
    miamee
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 12,224 Mod ✭✭✭✭miamee


    I'd guess that it's the rents alright. I assume if the Zerep/Korky's chain was closed it would have been on the news so just relocating or closing those branches perhaps.


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    #5
    beerbaron
    Registered Users Posts: 518 ✭✭✭beerbaron


    Yeah, it was on the news.

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/shoe-shop-korkys-loses-eightyear-battle-against-rising-rents-28956042.html


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    #6
    stevenmu
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,689 Mod ✭✭✭✭stevenmu


    The rent plays a large part in calculating the property value. In many cases it makes more financial sense for an owner to leave a property sit empty for a while, rather than to accept less rent and have to take a write down on the value of the property.


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    #7
    miamee
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 12,224 Mod ✭✭✭✭miamee


    beerbaron wrote: »
    Yeah, it was on the news.

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/shoe-shop-korkys-loses-eightyear-battle-against-rising-rents-28956042.html

    Thanks for that - if they are closed since the first week of January, I really have had my eyes closed!


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    #8
    SebBerkovich
    Registered Users Posts: 1,624 ✭✭✭SebBerkovich


    stevenmu wrote: »
    The rent plays a large part in calculating the property value. In many cases it makes more financial sense for an owner to leave a property sit empty for a while, rather than to accept less rent and have to take a write down on the value of the property.

    I guess the property tax might give them some incentive to allow the shops to return to a more accurate market value.


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    #9
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,311 ✭✭✭markpb


    SebBerkovich wrote: »
    I guess the property tax might give them some incentive to allow the shops to return to a more accurate market value.

    The property tax is just for residential properties - commercial property has been liable for rates for a very long time.

    In most cases where a property is empty, the owner (or parent company of the owner) are still paying rent, rates, etc so the landord hasn't suffered at all.


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    #10
    Gatling
    Registered Users Posts: 40,291 ✭✭✭✭Gatling


    High rents that can't be negotiated down add to the minimum 25year lease that even if you go bust and a new new retailer moves into your space your still liable for 25 years of the lease ,which is a total disgrace in its self even major shopping centres are finding it difficult to fill retail spaces, an easy solution would be the lilac centre model from the late 80's where retailers took up retail space on very low rents or in some cases no rent until your shop was making profits win/win situation for the centre and retailers
    360_F_102352090_ie3kLjDIvgrT1sxVDknWCUh8PxgMYzM7.jpg




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    #11
    Yakuza
    Registered Users Posts: 5,141 ✭✭✭Yakuza


    The current government backtracked on a promise to tackle upward only rent reviews as (as mentioned above) if the rent is lowered then the value of the property is lowered. (As a rule of thumb, the value of a property is a straight multiple of its annual rent). This would have an effect on the value of properties that NAMA holds, or properties in pension funds etc. It's one horrible mess that just shows how entrenched property is (as opposed to real industry that actually creates stuff) is in our economy.

    Empty units in Grafton street (and all over town, to be honest) are just a visible symptom of what ails our economy.


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    #12
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,311 ✭✭✭markpb


    Gatling wrote: »
    the lilac centre model from the late 80's where retailers took up retail space on very low rents or in some cases no rent until your shop was making profits win/win situation for the centre and retailers

    That's not a win for the centre at all - it requires more work to calculate the rent and leaves you open the possibility of not being able to repay the loan with which you built the centre in the first place. If enough of your retailers run into financial problem, you could lose the building to your bank.
    Yakuza wrote: »
    The current government backtracked on a promise to tackle upward only rent reviews as if the rent is lowered then the value of a property is lowered and this would have an effect on the value of properties that NAMA holds

    It was an asinine promise to make, it was quite clear at the time that changing the law to make existing contracts illegal was never going to happen without facing serious legal challenge.

    On the other hand, this article on NameWineLake could be interesting.


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