The owners of a Co Louth shopping centre have brought an action aimed at compelling a pension fund to reopen the centre’s anchor store under a 20-year “keep open” clause in the lease.

Parol Ltd and Carroll Village (Retail) Management Services Ltd, owners of the Carroll Village shopping centre in Dundalk, claim their rental income has been decimated by the closure for the second time of its anchor store, a Superquinn supermarket.

They are suing Friends First Managed Pension Funds, which they say took over the anchor lease in May 2007, claiming it is in breach of a “keep open” clause entered into in 1999.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the High Court yesterday granted an application by Parol and Carroll, to have the case fast-tracked in the Commercial Court.