Published Date: 08/02/2017

Tommy Barker, Property Editor, Irish Examiner

A new phase of retail warehousing at Cork city’s Turners Cross kicks off this week, with tenants Homestore+More taking 26,000 sq ft close to the super-sized Woodies outlet, while DID Electrical are due to follow on the same site in another new build for which planning has just been granted.

Household wares retailer Homestore+More is due to open tomorrow at the Kinsale Road Retail Park, after a rapid build period on a cleared site to the rear of the prominent Blackwater Motors VW dealership forecourts, previously well-known as Turners Cross Motors.

The Kinsale Road base will be Homestore+More’s 20th Irish store, and it joins Woodies, Harry Corry, Halpenny Golf and Kube Kitchens, giving further critical mass to the range there, while adjacent, older parks by the Kinsale Road and Tramore Road host dozens of other, smaller homeware traders, the most notable being Harvey Norman, in the one-time Woodies outlet.

It will be Homestore+More’s second store in Cork city and suburbs, as it already trades at Unit 10 at Mahon Point Retail Park, which is anchored by B&Q.

It brings to 20 the number of outlets it has nationwide and has promised further openings as the country’s economy and retail spend regains pace, and at a time when little new speculative building of retail units is taking place.

The new phase of retail provision follows the arrival of The Range at East Gate in December of 2016, when UK home, DIY and garden store The Range took a 60,000 sq ft unit once earmarked for B&Q, but unoccupied until now.

And, Homestore+More will be followed shortly at the 2005-established Turners Cross/Kinsale Road Retail Park, in the expanding new phase by DID Electrical, in its first opening in Cork city.

A strong national brand, it will now have 22 stores nationwide with a heavy concentration around Dublin, and already trades in Bandon, Co Cork in the former Flor Griffin outlet on the bypass road. DID’s other Munster presences at the moment are Clonmel and Waterford, and it has yet to find a base in Limerick. DID has two Galway bases.

The new retail warehouse provision in Cork’s suburbs is being carried out by Motor Services Limited (MSL) who moved their Mercedes dealership business from Turners Cross several years ago to East Gate Motor Mall.

Letting agent for MSL was Nicholas Corson of Finnegan Menton, and Florence Stanley of CBRE acted for Homestore+More, and the unit was let on a 20 year lease at €15.50 psf.

Finnegan Menton’s Mr Corson also confirmed a pre-let of a new 10,000 sq ft unit to DID, at a rent of €16 psf: construction is due to start within days, and a store opening is expected by July 2017.

Developers MSL are also providing a new, wedge-shaped cafe unit (a drive-thru McDonalds opened last year across the road from VW Blackwater Motors) in Phase 11 of the Kinsale Road Retail Park, of c 1,600 sq ft with a mezzanine option at a quoted rent of €30 psf: “We’re pleased to announce we are already at an advanced stage of negotiations with an operator for the cafe,” said Mr Corson.

Other units, from 7,000 sq ft up to 20,000 sq ft can be provided too, he added.