24th May (Issue 348)
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.
OFFICE
Spencer Dock, Dublin The National College of Ireland (NCI) is closing in on the purchase of an office block from the Central Bank to facilitate the expansion of its main campus in Dublin’s IFSC. While negotiations between the parties are said to be at an early stage, market sources believe that NCI has agreed to pay a figure close to the €50m the Central Bank had been seeking when it offered the property to the market in March as part of the wider €105m sale of Block R at Spencer Dock. The building’s east and west wings, which are self-contained, were offered alternatively by selling agents Lisney in individual lots at guide prices of €55m and €50m respectively. The NCI, for its part, is pursuing the purchase of Block R’s west wing. The property, which extends to 65,161 sq. ft., came for sale with a commitment from the Central Bank to rent the ground to sixth floors (58,516 sq. ft.) and 23 car parking spaces on a short-term lease until September 2022 upon completion of the sale. The contracted rent in this instance equates to €3.018m pa. The Irish Times, 17th May
Crown Square, Galway US Communications company, Poly, has selected Crown Square in Galway as the location for its EMEA centre of excellence. The software and audio-visual company plans to use its new office as its primary research and development hub in the EMEA region. Poly’s new office forms part of the wider Crown Square campus which is being delivered by the Rhatigan Group. Upon completion, the scheme will comprise c. 430,000 sq. ft. of office space, a 180-bed four-star hotel, 345 residential units and over 35,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space. The Office Buildings will achieve LEED Gold, NZEB certification and have an A2 energy rating. The Irish Times, 18th May
Harcourt Street, Dublin 2 International recruitment company Oliver James has signed an agreement for its latest office in the capital. Located at 8 Harcourt Street, the accommodation extends to 3,350 sq. ft. The company has agreed to occupy the offices under a new three-year lease with the building’s landlord, flexible workspace provider Clearspace. The Harcourt Street office is OJ Dublin’s second new location this year, and the fourth since the company’s arrival in the Republic in 2017. The Irish Times, 18th May
Upper Hatch Street, Dublin 2 Knight Frank expects to see strong interest from prospective occupiers in the newly remodelled space on offer from the Clancourt Group at One Park Place on Upper Hatch Street, Dublin 2. Grade A office accommodation extending to c. 41,400 sq. ft. is available to let immediately across the first (18,900 sq. ft.) and seventh floors (22,500 sq. ft.) following the completion of a comprehensive works programme involving parking for 340 bicycles. The Irish Times, 18th May
Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 The last remaining floor at 57 Adelaide Road (4,530 sq. ft.) is now available to let through CBRE. Last year, BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland took the entire of the ground floor of 57 Adelaide extending to 4,854 sq. ft. on a 15-year term, while Murgitroyd (a European patent and trademark attorney) took a lease on the entire of the second floor extending to 3,730 sq. ft. on a 10-year term. The Irish Times, 18th May
Cork Airport Business Park For sale in the Cork Airport Business Park is Building 4700, a modern block of 24,000 sq. ft. which is currently 75% let and yielding €221.7k in income. The sale price of €3.3m equates to €134 per sq. ft. A recent construction price index by the company Linesight indicates the costs of building suburban offices in Ireland currently range from just under €170 per sq. ft. to €230 per sq. ft. Building 4700 has its 24,600 sq. ft. gross, or 20,600 sq. ft. net, over two levels with a central core and lobby. The current rent of €221.7k pa equates to a return of 6.1% as it stands, but there’s a potential reversionary yield of 9.64% based on full occupancy. The Irish Examiner, 19th May
INDUSTRIAL / LOGISTICS
An Post has engaged commercial real estate advisers TWM and Savills to act on its behalf to source a new 500,000 sq. ft. logistics unit. The proposed facility will require a site of c. 35 acres and will be used by An Post as its main processing and distribution facility. The joint agents are seeking initial expressions of interest from developers with the required land holdings in the Dublin region. The Irish Times, 18th May
RETAIL
Gorey, Co Wexford Minaun Capital, a property investment vehicle established by the founder of online auction specialist BidX1, has acquired the Mill Retail Park in Gorey, Co Wexford. The €4.35m paid by Minaun reflects a NIY of 8.25% and represents a slight premium of 2% on the €4.25m which had been sought by MM Capital when it offered the scheme for sale last November. Located on the outskirts of Gorey town, Mill Retail Park comprises five retail units ranging from 2,966 sq. ft. to 16,200 sq. ft. The scheme contains an additional 1,811 sq. ft. Costa Coffee pod in the car park. Irish home store Choice Homes is the largest tenant, occupying two units with a lease expiring in 2033 and a term-certain of c. six years. Iceland, Maxi Zoo and Polonez occupy the remaining three main units. The park is 100% occupied at present with total rent of €396.32k a year, and a WAULT of c. six years to break options and just under 11 years to expiry. The scheme extends to c. 44,694 sq. ft. with c. 160 surface car spaces on a site area of c. 3.5 acres. The Irish Times, 18th May
HOSPITALITY
Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 Occupied and operated as a tourist office up until 2014 by the State’s tourism body, Fáilte Ireland, St Andrew’s on Suffolk Street is being offered to the letting market now through Cushman & Wakefield with the benefit of full planning permission for a licensed food hall, dining, cultural space along with annex banqueting hall. The rent is expected to be in excess of €600k pa. While the main church building extends to a total floor area of 19,794 sq. ft. over three floors, it offers the incoming tenant a large ground-floor area of 8,806 sq. ft. The opportunity includes an annex building situated to the rear of site extending to 1,690 sq. ft. as well as the opportunity for an extensive outdoor seating area. The Irish Times, 18th May
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Silicon Docks, Dublin One of the most high-end residential developments in Dublin is being primed for a €130m sale by owners Carysfort Capital and Angelo Gordon. Savills and Eastdil Secured have been instructed to sell Opus at Six Hanover Quay, located in the heart of Dublin’s “Silicon Docks”. The sale is to be pitched off a NIY of c. 3.5%. The BTR scheme includes 120 apartments which comprises 24 one-bedroom apartments, 74 two-bedroom apartments and 22 three-bedroom apartments including two duplexes. Opus is leased to a mix of individual and corporate tenants. On the ground floor there are two street-facing food and beverage units. The spaces are leased to Mackenzie’s, an American-inspired dining space, and Staple Foods, a healthy fast-food restaurant and coffee shop. Investment manager Carysfort Capital, along with US private equity backer Angelo Gordon, bought Opus from Cairn Homes for just over €100m four years ago. The 132,000 sq. ft. building is set across four blocks rising to seven and eight floors. React News, 17th May
Kilkenny Occupied previously by the Kilkenny mart prior to its move to its current location on the Dublin Road, the Kilkenny city centre site comprises 8.57 acres with extensive frontage of 550 metres on to New Road, Castlecomer New Road and Old Mart Road. The site, which is zoned “General Business – to provide for general development”, is being offered to the market by joint agents Savills and Bagnall Doyle MacMahon at a guide price of €6m (€700k per acre). The Irish Times, 18th May
Ringsend, Dublin 4 CBRE is guiding €3m for a residential development site with full planning permission for a bespoke apartment scheme in Ringsend, Dublin 4. The subject site on York Road, which extends to 0.18 acres has approval for the construction of 26 residential units (€115k per site). The planning permission provides for a seven-storey building comprising 13 one-bedroom and 13 two-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 516 sq. ft. to 840 sq. ft. respectively. The subject site is occupied currently by a two-storey commercial premises extending to 8,070 sq. ft. The plot is zoned “Z1” – Sustainable Residential Development under the current draft of the Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028, with a zoning objective “to protect, provide and improve residential amenities”. The Irish Times, 18th May
Dunsink Lands, Dublin 15 Nama has clashed with Fingal County Council over the future of lands in northwest Dublin that have space for up to 7,000 new homes. The State-owned “bad bank” has urged the county council to abandon moves to delay developing the Dunsink lands for the rest of the 2020s by placing them in Fingal’s long-term strategic property reserve. Nama said the “prime residential development lands” on which it has security at Lissenhall also had space for 7,000 new homes. The agency is lender to Bovale Developments, which has made a separate submission to Fingal on its Lissenhall lands, citing the same number of potential new homes. The agency’s submission to Fingal council was one among more than 1,800 sent in a public consultation on the draft plan. The Irish Times, 21st May
Poolbeg, Dublin 4 A Johnny Ronan-led consortium is to lodge plans in the coming days to Dublin City Council for 516 apartments at the former Irish Glass Bottle site at Poolbeg in Dublin. In a statutory planning notice, the consortium, Pembroke Beach DAC, has confirmed that the 516 apartments will include 143 BTR units, 52 social housing units, 77 affordable housing units and 244 apartments for private sale. Nama and co-owner of Lioncor Developments, Oaktree Capital, are also part of the consortium. The scheme comprises 180 one-bedroom units, 252 two-bedroom units, and 84 three-bedroom units. The 516 apartments are to be provided in two blocks ranging from four to 10 storeys in height. The plan will also include five cafes/restaurants, 14 retail units, one food hall and one health facility. The notice states that the mixed-use scheme represents phase two of the 37.2-acre redevelopment of the Irish Glass Bottle and Fabrizia sites at Poolbeg west, Dublin 4. The second phase is focused primarily on a five-acre plot within the site. Pembroke Beach currently has a separate planning application before Dublin City Council for 356 residential units. The Irish Times, 17th May
Irish Water Connections, Dublin The development of c. 20,000 homes is being held up in one area of Dublin because the units need to be connected to water supply by Irish Water, the latest housing task force report has said. The Housing Supply Coordination Task Force for Dublin was established in 2014 to track residential development and identify supply-related issues. The task force’s latest report for 2021 has shown that 19,980 homes in Fingal County Council’s jurisdiction are being held up because they are “dependent on Irish Water investment”, while there are 15,551 units on serviced sites that are ready to be built. The report added that following the provision of water infrastructure, these units would be deemed as “on serviced land and ready to be developed”. The task force’s report also noted that 4,400 homes are being held up due to the need for Irish Water investment on sites in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area. The report added that no units in Dublin City Council or South Dublin County Council required Irish Water investment to proceed to the development stage. The Business Post, 22nd May
Baldoyle, North Dublin The Department of Education has emerged as an objector to plans for more than 1,000 new homes at a site at Baldoyle in north Dublin. Earlier this year, Lismore Homes Ltd lodged a €468m fast-track planning application for a 1,007-unit SHD scheme for a site at Baldoyle in Dublin 13. The department notes that in terms of potential requirements for school places, it was relevant that the proposed development site adjoins two other large permitted SHDs, a scheme for 882 units and another for 1,221 residential units. The department stated that it submitted to An Bord Pleanála in both of these SHD applications that permission not be granted until a suitable site is identified to meet the post-primary school needs of existing and future residents of the area. A decision is due on the scheme in July. The Irish Times, 23rd May
OTHER
River Lee Lido, Cork The drive to create a lido in the River Lee is gaining momentum after three Cork city centre sites were identified as potentially suitable by engineering experts. According to market sources, Kennedy Quay, the Marina and Horgan’s Quay are on the shortlist of possible locations for a 50m open water pool. Kennedy Quay is already set for major development, if plans for a €350m development of the southern quay by O’Callaghan Properties is given the go-ahead, and redevelopment of the Marina is ongoing, with the first of several phases completed, including a new Marina Park. The city did have an outdoor public pool, the Lee Baths, which ran for more than 50 years before it closed in 1986. Prior to that, there was a swimming area in the River Lee near the old Waterworks. The Irish Examiner, 19th May
Construction Apprenticeships, Ireland In a move which could prolong the housing crisis, c. 8,000 apprentices have had their state training courses delayed. The highest number of delays are among construction apprenticeships, with 3,600 apprentice electricians, 1,100 apprentice plumbers and c. 800 carpenters all waiting for training courses. The training backlog was generated during the pandemic when Solas, the state training agency, shut down its education and training centres to comply with public health restrictions. The construction sector needs the recent surge in construction apprenticeships to continue because it has a labour shortage. Most apprenticeships involve a combination of on-the job training, which is provided by employers, and off-the-job training, provided by Solas. Classes have returned to the normal capacity of 14-16 students per class. Last year, a record 8,607 new apprentices were registered, which was up 40% on the pre-pandemic level in 2019. In total, there are 23,400 people doing apprenticeships at various stages. The Business Post, 23rd May
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