The company which owns The Quays Shopping Centre in Newry has collapsed into administration.
Administrators were appointed to UGP Newry Limited last month, but the details of the process have only been published on Companies House in recent days.
Andrew Dolliver and Luke Charleton of EY in Belfast were formally appointed by the High Court on March 19.
It follows a challenging period for the retail complex, which has been hit by high rates of vacancy.
Cork businessman Tom Coughlan’s property firm Urban Green Private (UGP) paid around £17 million in February 2024 to purchase the 375,000 sq ft development from receivers, who had been appointed two years earlier.
Tom Coughlan’s (inset) Urban Green Private bought The Quays in 2024.
Although it owns a number of shopping centres in Cork, Shannon, Arklow and Limerick, it was the company’s first foray into the north.
At the time, UGP said it considered The Quays as a strategically important centre on the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor, less than an hour from both capital cities.
Opened in 1999 on the site of old coal yards which originally served the Albert Basin in Newry, The Quays managed to attract major anchor tenants including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Omniplex and Debenhams.
But it has struggled with a high vacancy rate in recent years, following the loss of number of well-known high street names such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and The Body Shop.
The most significant loss came in May 2021 when Debenhams collapsed, leaving its 85,795 sq ft anchor unit at the shopping centre empty.
Five years on and it remains vacant.
A number of well-known retailers continue to the trade from the site, including Next, Boots, O’Neill’s, River Island, H&M and Superdry.
But recent listings by CBRE NI show more than two dozen vacant units at the shopping centre, ranging from 916 sq ft to 23,068 sq ft.
Speculation over a potential sale of the asset has been growing since last year.
It’s understood the centre continues to trade as normal, but the administration process could result in the asset being brought back to the market.
It follows a flurry of high profile deals for Northern Ireland shopping centres in the past year, including the £58.8m acquisition of the Abbeycentre in Newtownabbey by the Herbert Property Group in June, which was the biggest deal of 2025.
Sprucefield Retail Park, the Riverside Retail Park in Coleraine, Tesco’s Craigavon site and the Erneside Shopping Centre in Enniskillen all changed hands in the final weeks of 2025.
Erneside was acquired for £12.4m by the owners of Rushmere complex in Co Armagh, who bought the Craigavon complex out of administration for £46.5m three years ago.