19th August (Issue 510)
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.
MIXED-USE
Kevin Street, Dublin 8 Orange Capital Partners, the Dutch investment firm, has been selected as the preferred bidder for Camden Yard, the troubled Dublin development that was placed into liquidation earlier this year. In May, CBRE brought the mixed residential and commercial development site, located at the former DIT campus on Kevin Street, to market on behalf of joint receivers John Boland and Nicholas O’Dwyer of Grant Thornton. A guide price in excess of €90m was attached to the property project, which upon completion, will deliver 299 apartments and 407,000 sq. ft of office space on a 3.57-acre site. The Business Post understands that Orange Capital Partners has been selected as the preferred bidder of eight groups vying for the property. The Dutch property investment firm is understood to have bid slightly above the €90m guide price. The Business Post, 15th August
Whiddy Island, West Cork A quirky mix of farmland and properties totalling 226 acres on the 5,000-acre Whiddy Island, a 10-minute ferry ride from Bantry has been brought to market by Sherry Fitzgerald guiding €4m for the entire lot. Largely in one block with other, separate sites, it has water frontage to Bantry Bay, facing east to the mainland and towards Bantry airstrip, with a pier/slipway. The sale includes up to ten houses, including a restaurant/bar (Bank House) along with archaeological remains, a ruin with planning for conversion and a military battery built in 1804 to defend the bay from French forces. The unique mix of heritage, houses, land, and buildings could suit as a wellness retreat, tourism/hospitality, private retreat, or mixed farm-and-accommodation venture. The Irish Examiner, 14th August
OFFICE
North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 An Coimisiún Pleanála (“ACP”) has upheld DCC’s rejection of RGRE’s planned 17-storey development in the docklands. In February, RGRE firm NWQ Devco Ltd sought a 10-year planning permission for the redevelopment of Citigroup’s current European headquarters at 1 North Wall Quay. The scheme involves the demolition of Citigroup’s existing six-storey office building and the development of four buildings in its place, ranging in heights of nine storeys to 17. ACP found that the scheme’s excessive height, bulk, massing and form would constitute an overly dominant and isolated tall building, one that would be at odds with the surrounding context and would seriously injure the amenity of the Liffey quays and views along the river corridor. The Irish Independent, 14th August
Clonskeagh, Dublin 14 TWM is guiding €7m for Block 9, a vacant 35,869 sq. ft office building located in Richview Office Park, Clonskeagh. Richview Office Park is one of Clonskeagh’s three principal office developments, and is home to a mix of high-profile occupiers, including Flutter, Smurfit Westrock, the Environmental Protection Agency and University College Dublin. Positioned directly off Clonskeagh Road, the park offers strong transport connectivity to both the M50 and N11. Block 9 is centrally located within the park and comes with a minimum of 85 surface car parking spaces. The building’s B2 BER-rated accommodation is arranged over multiple floors and features a modern fit-out with glazed partitioning, two passenger lifts and a large reception area that could serve as a welcoming client-facing space. The Business Post, 18th August
HOSPITALITY
Cork City, Cork Service station and energy provider Corrib Oil is to create 50 jobs and open the first Wendy’s fast food restaurant in Cork. The restaurant will open in Mahon Point Shopping Centre in October, and Wendy’s will use Irish beef and chicken across its menu. Founded in 1987, Corrib Oil currently operates 40 convenience stores with forecourts and 20 fuel depots across 17 counties. The partnership with Wendy’s is a key part of its expansion strategy in Ireland, which aims to more than double its national footprint to 100 locations by 2030 and continue to grow its home heating distribution and fuel card business. The company recently announced the franchise deal with Wendy’s about six months ago. It will see 10 locations open in the next two years with about 300 jobs to be created. The US fast food restaurant chain first opened in 1969 and has grown to more than 7,200 restaurants. About 1,200 of these are located in more than 30 markets outside of the United States. The Irish Times, 18th August
Residential/Development
North Docklands, Dublin 1 Spencer Place Residential, a Ronan Group development in Dublin’s north docklands, has been sold to Ardstone for €177m. The transaction is the highest-value residential investment deal in Ireland this year and suggests a higher level of confidence in the sector. Ronan Group acquired the six-acre mixed-use campus in 2016, and subsequently secured the tenancy of Salesforce, in what was described as the largest pre-let ever achieved in the Irish market. Ardstone is now acquiring the development from Spencer Place Development Company, which is a joint venture between the Ronan Group and Fortress Investment Group. Spencer Place Residential represents the final phase of the campus, with 360 private units in two buildings, that include build-to-rent apartments and co-living spaces. The development features a 24-hour concierge, gym, cinema and top-floor lounges, and was designed to support a community of over 700 residents. The Irish Independent, 13th August
Blackrock, Co. Dublin Cairn Homes is to lodge new plans for 252 residential build-to-sell units for one of the few available sites in Blackrock in south Dublin that is suitable for a higher density apartment scheme. Cairn Homes is to seek permission for 236 apartments and 16 houses from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for its site at Chesterfield, Cross Avenue. The 236 apartments are to be located in two blocks ranging in height from five to eight storeys while the 16 homes will be five bedroom terrace houses. Cairn has been trying to develop the site for the past seven years and last year ACP refused permission for 355 build-to-rent apartments as it would lead to an over-proliferation of such apartments for the area. The Irish Times, 14th August
Residential Zoned Land Tax The RZLT was first flagged in the 2021 Finance Act as the replacement for the largely unsuccessful vacant site levy and is a 3% levy on the value of undeveloped land. Its aim is to encourage residential development on serviced land amid a housing crisis. In June, Revenue released the first tranche of data on payments for land identified by local authorities as falling under the tax net. The figures show close to 1,800 returns were filed by the end of May, with a combined €40m paid to date. However, close to 60 appeals have been filed to ACP by site owners in the two weeks before the August 1 deadline. This follows a similar trend to last year’s, when over 90 appeals were lodged in late July 2024. Sites earmarked for large housing projects are among the appeals this year, with cases brought by major developers as well as more regional players in several counties. There are also appeals from the company which operates Croke Park, while the owners of a site on the quays in Dublin recently earmarked for the capital’s tallest building also want off the list. The Currency, 12th August
Cork City, Cork Work on Ireland’s tallest tower, an 85m high apartment tower, on the former Sextant pub/Carey tool site, is due to commence next month, with a two-year delivery timeline to September 2027. Railyard apartments, a cost rental led/social housing scheme of 217 homes in a 24 storey tower, in a joint development between JCD Group and Cork City Council on Albert Street/Albert Quay, will be located just 200 metres downriver of City Hall. Currently, Ireland’s tallest tower is the Obel building in Belfast at 85m, with 233 apartment plus offices. Cork’s Railyard scheme will drop from a 24 storey tower to 11 and nine floors with public realm, and will integrate part of the former Blackrock and Passage rail line terminus/heritage buildings. The former Sextant bar was demolished in August 2020. The Irish Examiner, 14th August
Swords, Co. Dublin Glenveagh Homes is considering changes to a 650-home housing development including omitting a number of housing units from the site, and a plan for a 379-unit, mixed-use development on a site near Swords. Glenveagh consulted the local authority on the omission of 196 residential units from the Strategic Housing Development, including 43 one-bed units, 120 two-bed units and 33 three-bed units, across eight houses and 188 apartments, and alterations to the internal road network, car parking, open space and landscaping. It is further gauging the viability of making amendments to the Mooretown Phase 2 development, including the omission of three four-bed houses and changes to the internal road and parking network. As part of the consultation process, it sought the council’s input on a separate plan for a 379-unit, mixed-use development, according to a list of decisions published by Fingal County Council this week. The Irish Times, 19th August
Chapelizod, Dublin 7 ACP has reopened an appeal over a 106-home development next to the Phoenix Park after the High Court quashed its decision to grant planning permission for the complex. The proposed development, which has been sought by Linders of Smithfield Limited, is made up of 96 apartments in two blocks and 10 duplex apartments in a third block, at Quadrant House on Chapelizod Road. The large residential development (LRD) application was made in July 2023, seeking permission to level the Chapelizod Road site and to construct three residential blocks ranging from three to five storeys. The development, which was proposed to have a gross floor area of 105,341 sq. ft, was to include a residents’ gym, a cafe, a communal work space and a basement car park with 84 parking spaces. The development was not set to include any childcare facilities. The Irish Times, 19th August
OTHER
Shankill, Co. Dublin Work is now underway on the development of new sport and recreational facilities in Shanganagh Park. The plans for the 21 acre site in the 87 acre park met with significant opposition locally, when the project first received Part 8 approval in May 2022. The High Court quashed the decision in a judicial review, forcing DLRCC back to the drawing board. A public consultation organised by the council a year later attracted 1,107 valid submissions, of which 726 were in favour. Some 357 were opposed and others were neutral. Submissions were also received from the National Monument Service, which noted there was evidence of significant archaeological features. Following some amendments, subsequent plans included one full size/two half-size pitches, floodlights, netting, cages, wire fences, a running track, a basketball court and storage containers and were approved by a council vote in February 2024. The Irish Independent, 15th August
Clarecastle, Co. Clare The cost of the clean-up at Roche’s former manufacturing site in Clarecastle has now come to €150.5m over five years. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant has described the work as “one of the largest remediation projects of its type in Europe”. New accounts show that Roche Ireland Ltd recorded losses of €54.9m in 2024 as its spending on decommissioning and remediation continued to mount, following its decision to end manufacturing here. The €54.9m loss includes a combined spend of €48.26m on environmental and demolition costs, which is the highest spend so far on a project that has been ongoing since 2020. Excavation at the first area of environmental concern was completed in January 2024, with 17,500 tonnes of contaminated soil transported off-site in 674 sealed containers to a licensed thermal treatment facility in Holland. Groundwater purification of that area is currently underway. The Irish Independent, 14th August
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