Last week they announced the acquisition of six retail units from the grocer which will be leased back to them for 25 years. Friends First are hoping to develop these property spin-offs with apartment blocks, new supermarkets and additional retail units.

A request for planning permission will be submitted shortly for the development of Superquinn's Finglas store in north Dublin, to include a 30,000sq ft supermarket, 10 retail units, 90 basement car-parking spaces and 153 one- and two-bed apartments.

Friends First CEO, Adrian Hegarty says they are looking at similar ideas for the other sites.

"We will be looking to maximize the space for each site. You see more and more retail companies looking at their property portfolio nowadays so this was a very serious play for us. We will be making the most of it, " he said.

The group are looking for 'Average Joe' investors with SSIA money to finance part of the deal and have set up a fund that is to be specifically targeted at small investors which can be bought into for the unusually small amount of 15,000.

"Normally these things are closed off to the big boys and you need a minimum 150,000 to get involved, " said Hegarty.

The fund is targetting 37m, which is to be called Friends First Corinthian. Hegarty which he has no qualms about reaching saying it will "fly out the door" and that it will widen the audience of potential investors.

"The idea was to widen the investment base. Part of our thinking was that many people would have new SSIA money in the region of amounts around 20,000 coming to them. This is a way for us to target that money.

We see it as very innovative, " he said.

Hegarty is hopeful that a dividend of between 4% and 5% can be paid out annually to investors with a further capital gain once the properties are sold.

"We do have the security of the leasehold we would be confident that we can give a decent pay-out with the further gain for investors to come when we sell, " he said.