Well, that’s what Jack Fagan calls it in today’s Irish Times as he provides a valuable picture of rents in Dundrum Town Centre shopping complex owned and managed by Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land/Crossridge Investments, Joe being reported to be one of the NAMA Top 10 developers whose loans were acquired by the agency in Mar-May 2010. Personally I would have said that the Treasury controlled 37-acre Battersea Power Station site on the south bank of the Thames in London would vie for the title of most valuable NAMA asset, especially now that it has full planning permission for a €7bn development.
Who needs a commercial rents database when you have Jack Fagan whose reporting of rents in Dundrum is summarised below:
Jack reckons that the Dundrum centre is currently generating an annual rent of €55m which might value it at €600-800m using 7-9.5% yields. Interestingly the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre failed to sell recently at €350m and it has a rent roll of €30m today that was projected to rise to €34m imminently (representing a 9.7% yield at €34m). Sources claim that, today, Liffey Valley would realise €300m “on a good day” which would indicate a yield of 11%. Apply 11% to Dundrum’s €55m reported rent roll and its value comes down to €500m. The reason claimed for the abandonment of the Liffey Valley sale was the FG/Labour manifesto pledges on rent reviews in upward-only leases which the Society of Chartered Surveyors says will reduce commercial values by 20% on average – for shopping centres like Dundrum where leases were entered into during a pre-let period from 2003, the effect on the centre’s value could be devastating. The following are the going rates for Zone A rents in Dundrum, Liffey Value and Blanchardstown shopping centres according to Jack Fagan in today’s Irish Times.
Dundrum Town Centre was opened in 2005 having been built by Anglo “Golden Circle” member Joe O’Reilly and fellow Longford man, the late Liam Maye. The site was reportedly bought for €10.2m. With 79,000 sq metres it claims to be the biggest shopping centre in the State. It is reported to contribute some €7m per annum in local authority rates to DunLaoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The Irish Times claims that the centre had a footfall of 19m, that is 19m visitors, last year and further claims “a great many of them from the affluent south Dublin suburbs”. Phase II of the centre has been given the green light by planning authorities but its future is in doubt against the backdrop of the economic crisis – Phase II was to have been a €600m development which would have seen 101,000 sq metres of space added making the shopping centre the largest in Europe.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Let us not forget that our national monument in Moore street is still under grave threat of demolition ,to turn over a few bob for chartered lands , The city does not need a facelift /shopping mall, The Future is in sustainable tourism ,not in another Dundrum right in the heart of our City.