10th December (Issue 476)
Welcome to the Origin Capital Weekly Irish Property Review. This update is designed to provide you with a full recap of the latest property news from the media over the last seven days.
HOSPITALITY
2024 Review 15 Dublin licensed premises have changed hands this year with a capital value of €53.3m, equating to an average price of €3.6m. There are a further 8 pubs at the sale-agreed/sold-awaiting-closing stage, with a capital value of approx. €29m. By comparison, last year 20 pubs were sold, with a capital value of €42.4m, and an average price of €2.1m. Devitt’s on Camden Street was sold earlier this year, for a price rumoured to be approx. €15m. The Irish Times, 5th December
Vicar Street, Dublin 8 An Bord Pleanála (“ABP”) has cleared the way for Harry Crosbie’s planned Vicar Street hotel scheme for Dublin 8 after invalidating the sole appeal against the hotel proposal on technical grounds. The board invalidated the appeal after the appellant enclosed the incorrect Dublin City Council (“DCC”) procedural letter with the appeal. Instead of enclosing the council’s acknowledgment of her objection, the appellant enclosed the council letter confirming that planning permission had been granted. DCC gave the go-ahead for the scheme in late October for a planned four-star, 182-bedroom “rock and room” concept hotel for Dublin’s Liberties area. The Irish Times, 5th December
Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Plans are to be lodged for almost a tripling in the room capacity of the Clarence Hotel. Keywell DAC has given notice that it is to lodge plans for the revamp and extension of the hotel with DCC. The plan is to increase the number of rooms from the current 58 to 162. The additional 104 bedrooms will include a six-storey extension at the site. The hotel refurbishment will comprise 91,967 sq. ft. The Journal, 7th December
RETAIL
Grafton Street, Dublin 2 Build-A-Bear Workshop is set to move into 47 Grafton Street in spring 2025. The property is owned by Irish Life and comprises 880 sq. ft on the ground floor. The lease has been agreed for a 10-year term, with the rent understood to be in the region of €250k per annum. Savills Ireland and Bannon were joint agents and negotiated the deal on behalf of Irish Life. BKL represented the tenant. The retailer already has outlets in Dundrum Town Centre and Blanchardstown and operates over 400 stores globally. The Irish Independent, 5th December
2024 Review According to Colliers, retail was the most traded asset class in the first three quarters, making up more than 33% of all property activity this year. Should the sale of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre close by year-end, retail property investment activity is expected to top €1b in 2024, the highest level since 2016. €417m has been spent on retail property in the year to date. Shopping centres account for the largest proportion, at 43%, with the next largest asset class being retail parks at 34%. Only 20% of the spend has been from Irish investors. The Irish Times, 5th December
Douglas, Co Cork Douglas Court Shopping Centre is seeking to expand with the addition of an upstairs health and wellness centre. Cork City Council has received an application from the Douglas Court Partnership for a change of use of storage areas on the shopping centre’s first-floor level to facilitate the provision of a health and wellness centre. The development will comprise 8 units in the property. The development will provide uses such as fitness, health and wellness use and hair and beauty treatments, which future operators may require. The Irish Examiner, 6th December
INDUSTRIAL/LOGISTICS
Kilshane Cross, Dublin 11 Unit 3, Quantum Distribution Park has become available for either a lease assignment or sub-letting to prospective tenants. Agent CBRE is guiding a rent of €12.75 psf for a subletting, or else a tenant can take over the lease on assignment at €9.65 psf. There is approx. 13 years to run on the existing lease. The logistics facility extends to 178,14 sq. ft incorporating 13,992 sq. ft (7.85%) of office accommodation. It is finished to high sustainability standards: LEED Gold, BREEAM Excellent and BER A3. The Irish Independent, 5th December
Shanbally, Co Cork Rare disease specialist BioMarin Pharmaceuticals will invest €60m to expand its Cork plant – the company’s only manufacturing facility outside the United States. The biotechnology group said it will build a four-storey laboratory at the Shanbally site to allow for increased production of its current medicines and capacity for future products. The Irish Times, 9th December
Nationwide Retail giant Spar Group is set to invest almost €24m for “capital expenditure” in its Irish business, BWG Foods, which is based in Tallaght. BWG Foods, which has a substantial business nationwide with over 1,000 Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL stores, has emerged as one of Spar Group’s most successful businesses. The South African-listed group first invested in BWG when it paid €55m for an 80% stake in 2014. The Irish Independent, 8th December
OFFICE
Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2 A building designed to house Ireland’s most environmentally and employee-friendly workspaces was launched this week. The Sidings by Bartra on Clanwilliam Terrace is the country’s first ‘triple-platinum’ awarded construction project. On the 10th floor, employees can enjoy a large wraparound terrace, featuring a 190m landscaped walkway. The ground floor has dedicated street-level access to secure parking for approx. 200 bicycles, and the bike storage area also includes repair stations, clothes driers, showers and lockers for cycling commuters. Designed by Dublin-based TOT Architects, The Sidings was awarded LEED Platinum status by the US Green Building Council. The Business Post, 5th December
RESIDENTIAL /DEVELOPMENT
Merrion Road, Dublin 4 Local residents are stalling plans by builders Lioncor for a 200-bedspace purpose-built student accommodation scheme for Merrion Rd. Last month, DCC granted planning permission to a Lioncor subsidiary, 1 Merrion Compound Land Ltd, for the two-block six-storey scheme at Merrion Gates, 169-177 Merrion Road despite the opposition of residents. However, the scheme is now stalled with two separate third party appeals lodged contending that the proposed development is out of scale with the existing site, will constitute overdevelopment of the site and is architecturally out of sync with the immediate surrounding buildings and dwellings. The Irish Independent, 6th December
Mardyke Walk, Cork City Long idle waste ground at the western end of Mardyke Walk is finally set for development as work gets underway on a series of apartments and duplexes that will replace a terrace of homes demolished several years ago. The site at Carmelite Place has been the subject of a series of planning applications going back over 20 years. Six terraced homes and a shop called Carmelite Stores used to occupy the site, but these were demolished more than a decade ago and in 2018, the land was entered into Cork City Council’s Derelict Sites Register. A building contractor has now started work on the trapezoidal-shaped parcel of land that fronts Western Road and the western tip of Mardyke Walk, behind an AIB branch. Plans for a new, modernist, residential development on the approx. 0.25-acre site for 14 dwellings across a series of joined three-storey blocks over a raised podium, in a linear building are underway. The Irish Examiner, 5th December
Mitchelstown, Co Cork MDR Developments Ltd has been granted planning for 43 new dwellings in Mitchelstown. The development will also comprise a central public area, with two parking spaces for each dwelling, with the site area comprising 5.36 acres. Access to the development will be provided via an existing estate entrance and internal road network at the Sliabh Álainn residential development in Brigown, Mitchelstown. The Irish Examiner, 5th December
Appian Way, Dublin 6 RGRE J & R Valerys Limited has failed in an appeal to quash DCC’s demand for unpaid vacant site levy fees for a multi-million-euro Dublin 6 site. The appeal over the local authority’s 2022 levy demand was brought by the receivers, Declan McDonald and Ken Tyrrell of PwC. The appeal to An Bord Pleanála centres on the council’s site valuation. The council valued it at €4.5m in May 2019, before revising this down to €4m in late 2022. As the levy is charged at seven per cent of market value, the council is demanding payment of €315k. Two previous failed appeals against council demands for payment in 2020 and 2021 were also brought by RGRE J & R Valerys before entering receivership. Both cases also centred on the council’s valuation of the site and the amounts demanded. The company argued that it received a valuation in March 2021 of between €3m and €3.25m. In those cases, the planning inspector handling the appeals found the levy amount was correctly calculated and affirmed the council’s payment demand for the two years. The Currency, 3rd December
OTHER
BNP PRE Ireland Construction PMI Report The BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland Construction Total Activity Index posted 47.5 in November, down from 49.4 in October and signalling a reduction in total construction activity for the third straight month. Housing activity however increased for the third consecutive month in November but commercial activity fell, and civil engineering work was down again. John McCartney, Director at BNP Paribas stated: “Firstly, overall construction activity is being dragged lower by a contraction in commercial building. This is not necessarily a bad thing as some segments of the commercial market are over-stocked with space, and a slowdown in production will give demand a chance to catch-up with supply. Secondly, residential construction is bucking the overall trend, and activity has been expanding almost continuously since March. This dovetails with recent commencements data and suggests that 2025 will be significantly better than this year for housing delivery. Thirdly, the general air of optimism in the sector remains, with the forward-looking PMI elements such as order books, hiring and materials purchasing all pointing in a positive direction. BNP Paribas, 9th December
Hibernia Group Hibernia, one of the biggest property developers and landlords in Ireland, has seen total assets fall below €1bn for the first time since it was acquired in 2022 by Brookfield Asset Management in a deal valued at €1.1bn and delisted from the Irish Stock Exchange. Since it was acquired, Hibernia has focused on integrating into the Brookfield Group, with hundreds of millions of euro worth of Irish property transferred to other Brookfield entities. The most recent set of accounts for Hibernia Real Estate Group Limited show its combined assets are now valued at €826.6m. At the end of March 2022, the firm’s combined assets were valued at €1.48bn. The recent transfers of property assets by Hibernia to other Brookfield entities has made it difficult to estimate the exact value of Hibernia’s real estate portfolio. Newly released financial records showed the company’s property portfolio took a €92m hit in the year to the end of March 2024. In the previous financial year, the company also reported a large loss on its investment properties, with the value down €139.5m. The most recent set of accounts for the firm show it has €168.1m worth of property after shifting €445.1m of office and €130m of residential assets to other firms by way of intercompany transfers. As a result of the transfers, rental revenue was down from €48.8m to €25.1m. The Business Post, 9th December
If you have an article which you would like to have considered for inclusion in our next weekly report, please contact us at info@origincapital.ie