Clerys looks set to be sold again

TWO of Dublin’s best-known shopping destinations are about to be sold to Irish and international investors.

The iconic Clerys department store on O’Connell Street is to be sold to Deirdre Foley’s property investment group, D2 Private, for a reported €29million.

And Dundrum Town Centre is poised to be sold for €1billion.

Clerys, a Dublin landmark for more than 170 years, has suffered from tough trading conditions and was forced to close for weeks due to severe flooding in 2013. After 71 years in the Guiney family, it went into receivership in 2012 and was bought by US-based Gordon Broth- ers a year later for a nominal price of just under €1million and €14million in accumulated debts.

London- based hedge f und, Cheyne Capital Management, will back D2 Private in the bid to buy Clerys, the Sunday Business Post has reported.

Meanwhile, California-based global investment group Colony Capital is poised to pay around €1billion for Dundrum Town Centre. Colony has already dipped a toe in the Irish property investment waters after it backed Irish property investors Johnny Ronan and Paddy McKillen in their bid to snap up property bargains from NAMA. Colony and UK- based M& G I nvestments funded Mr Ronan’s exit from NAMA earlier this year.

Mr Ronan and the US investor also linked up to develop a 200,000 sq ft office block on Burlington Road in Dublin with Development Securities and Mr McKillen.

Colony is responsible for $19billion in assets around the world.

It is being reported that NAMA will put a package of loans associated with Dundrum Town Centre on the market in the coming days.

The loans will be bundled with other loans connected to the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, and the Ilac Centre according to the Sunday Business Post.