Lidl to share plans for state-of-the-art Shankill store with residents
Print21 April 2017
A local Councillor has welcomed the news that Shankill Shopping Centre is to be re-opened by Lidl Ireland.
Cathaoirlach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Cormac Devlin announced on his website that Lidl will host a public information meeting for local residents on Monday, 24 April at Shanganagh Park House, “to go through [Lidl’s] proposals for the site”.
In a letter to local residents viewed by ShelfLife, Councillor Devlin added: “As someone who has been very concerned about the future of this site over the past 10 years, I am very pleased to know that commercial activity will resume and employment return to this much needed shopping centre.
“This site is of extreme importance to the wider Shankill area and although a major redevelopment had taken place recently, I know that many local people will be eager to see what changes Lidl Ireland proposes to it,” Councillor Devlin added.
The Irish Times reported in October of last year that Lidl purchased the largely vacant shopping centre from a Lithuanian billionaire, with plans to open a “state-of-the-art” new store.
While Lidl declined to reveal the price it paid for the property, the newspaper reported the site had been recently valued by its owners at a sum exceeding €8.7 million. Bilaro, a company with ties to Lithuanian retail magnate Nerijus Numavicius, who sold the site, bought it in 2012 for circa €6 million and had drastically remodelled the centre prior to selling it on.
Accounts filed for Bilaro reveal the sale closed on 14 July 2016. The Irish Times reports that whilst the sale price remains unknown, company documents show a payment of €8.3 million from the proceeds was paid into another company linked to Numavicius. Hence suggesting that the property sold for close to its valuation.
Although Bilaro previously had plans to open a supermarket in the centre last year, work abruptly stopped last spring. This left Shankill in the unenviable position of being a major suburb of Dublin with no major supermarket to cater for its needs.
The Shankill centre was previously owned by Select Retail Holdings (SRH), the consortium that bought Superquinn from Feargal Quinn, but was bought out of receivership in 2011 by Musgrave.
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