Thursday 26 June 2008

Aldi checks out the apartment market

GERMANS ARE usually known for their good timing, but Aldi must surely be regretting their late entry into the property development game.

The discount store has just secured planning permission to build 107 apartments beside a new store in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.

Fingal County Council has granted permission for the apartments along with 4,542sq m (48,890sq ft) of office space and four smaller retail units on a 2.5-hectare site, which stretches from Clonard Hill Road to the cemetery at Naul Road.

That said, Aldi is not the only food multinational breaking into the property game.

Supermarket giant Tesco is behind a number of significant residential schemes in the UK. It has plans for close to 981 homes and a store in Woolwich, 900 student flats and 300 homes in Glasgow, and proposals for a new 8,000-home town at Hinxton Grange, just off the A11 in Cambridgeshire.

The thinking is: if you are going to expand your chain, why not pick undeveloped land and build a captive audience around your store.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

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