28th October (Issue 520)
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.
RETAIL
Henry Street, Dublin 1 ILIM is seeking €2.7m through Bannon for 5 GPO Buildings on Henry Street. The sale offers the prospective buyer an initial yield of 13.5%. Acquired by ILIM in 2015 as part of its wider €154m purchase of a collection of eight retail units and five office blocks known as the Sovereign portfolio, 5 GPO Buildings comprises a ground floor and basement “lock-up” retail unit extending to a total area of 1,774 sq. ft. Located within the historic GPO building, the entire property is let to Three Ireland. There are three years remaining on the existing lease and the current rental income is €410,000 pa. However, Three Ireland has vacated the property, and it is sublet under licence to Lovisa Ireland Limited at an annual rent of €175,000, expiring one month before the Three Ireland lease. Should Lovisa decide to sign a new lease agreement at that point, the purchaser of the property could reasonably expect to secure at least the same annual rent, according to the selling agent. The Irish Times, 22nd October
MIXED USE
Foley Street, Dublin 1 Gas Networks Ireland has engaged Avison Young to find a buyer for the former headquarter offices of Bord Gais Energy on Foley Street. The building, located at the junction with Buckingham Street Lower and just off Amiens Street, is being offered to the market with full vacant possession at a guide price of €9.5m. The figure is nearly €4m less than the €13.83m the then Bord Gais paid for the property in 2021. The property served as the company’s headquarters until it relocated to One Warrington Place in 2012. The building was occupied subsequently by Irish Water under a lease from Gas Networks Ireland, which has now expired. Extending to a net internal area of 35,860 sq. ft distributed across five floors over basement level, the property comes for sale fully fitted and with the benefit of 20 secure basement car parking spaces. The building also includes a separate retail/storage unit fronting Beaver Street. The office accommodation comprises a mix of open-plan and private office space, meeting rooms, a 50-seat auditorium, a canteen and locker rooms. The building features a wrap-around terrace at fourth-floor level. The Irish Times, 22nd October
O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 The owners of the Clerys Quarter expect to bring the property to market in 2027 once the retail, office and hospitality venue is fully occupied, new financial filings reveal. The Clerys building is owned by OCES Property Holdings Limited, a firm controlled by Europa Capital, a UK real estate firm. Derek McGrath of Core Capital and Paddy McKillen Jnr also own a share in the investment vehicle. Decathlon, the sports retailer, and H&M, the clothing store, leased large retail units in the property in 2024. A note in the directors’ report said the lease up of the remaining units in the property is ongoing. The owners acquired the property in 2018 for a fee in the region of €63m. The deal included a warehouse on Earl Place and 94 – 97 Marlborough Street. Prior to the sale of some assets in 2023 to the HSE, the Clerys Quarter assets were valued at close to €87.4m. At the end of 2023, the company recorded €59.3m worth of property in its accounts following the sale of part of 30,700 sq. ft of office space in the Earl Building on North Earl Street to the HSE for €19.1m and a €15.3m impairment of its remaining assets. The new financial results for OCES show it booked a loss of €15.2m, compared to €18.9m in 2023. Following a €5.5m impairment in 2024, the company has €54.1m worth of investment property. The Business Post, 21st October
Dublin Irwin Druker, the commercial property agent who looked after the Dunnes Stores property portfolio for decades, is preparing to sell a portfolio of his own. The Sunday Times understands that Druker has appointed Savills to sell a range of properties, which include Nos 2 and 37 Dawson Street. Savills declined to comment. However, the Sunday Times understands the portfolio has a sale price of approx. €24m. Now based in the UK, Druker, 78, owns a range of buildings in Dublin city centre and the suburbs through the entity Regal Estates. They include 3 South Great George’s Street, which is let to Bear Market Coffee, and No. 37 Dawson Street which is let to the NolaClan Group on a 29-year and nine-month lease since 2012, with an average annual rent of €300,000, according to the property price register. The Sunday Times, 26th October
PURPOSE BUILT STUDENT ACCOMMODATION
Dublin/Galway Greystar is in exclusive talks to buy a 724-bed student portfolio in Dublin and Galway. Property sources say that the company has agreed to pay €105m for the Project Galaxy portfolio, which is being sold by another American investor, EQT Real Estate. This is €10m below the asking price of €115m. The portfolio was put on the market in May through Cushman & Wakefield. Greystar declined to comment. One of the complexes is located at Mayor Square in the IFSC in Dublin, beside the National College of Ireland. It comprises 290 bed spaces. The second scheme, Cuirt Na Coiribe in Galway, has 434 bed spaces and sits on a large, 3.5-acre site and has full planning permission for an additional 515 beds. That is due to expire in January. The Sunday Times, 26th October
OFFICE
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Fibonacci Square, the 386,704 sq. ft office scheme, is on course to secure a number of occupiers. Both Griffin Aviation and Orix Aviation are understood to be looking to sublet space from Meta for up to 300 workers between them over two floors in Block 2, which is now known as Fibonacci Place. Griffin is said to be in talks for the sixth floor, which extends to 12,731 sq. ft, while Orix is seeking in excess of 20,000 sq. ft on another of the building’s floors. News of the negotiations comes just one week after National Bank of Canada (“NBC”) signed a deal to sublet the fifth floor at Block 2 from Meta. NBC has taken up the remaining 12 years of Meta’s lease and has committed to paying the original passing rent of €59.50 psf. The fifth floor extends to 20,926 sq. ft and comes with the benefit of a 5,000 sq. ft balcony overlooking the RDS and 10 car-parking spaces. Cushman & Wakefield brokered the deal on behalf of Meta while Bannon represented NBC. While the arrival of three tenants at Fibonacci Place will be welcomed by the market, coming nearly three years on from Meta’s decision not to occupy the scheme itself, the vast majority of its space remains to be let. The Irish Times, 22nd October
Foley Street, Dublin 1 The prospect of a 7.25% NIY is expected to see interest from private investors and others in the sale of the penthouse floor at Ulysses House on Foley Street. The property is being offered to the market by CBRE, with a newly signed lease in place to a strong tenant, at a guide price of €2.55m. The penthouse floor extends to 7,387 sq. ft and is fully leased to a well-established French business school on a seven-year lease from September 2025, with a tenant break option in September 2030. The tenant is currently paying an annual rent of €202,500 and the investment comes with two secure car-parking spaces located to the rear of the property. Ulysses House is about a five-minute walk from Connolly Station, providing a range of commuter rail and Dart services. The Irish Times, 22nd October
Hatch Street, Dublin 2 Iput has secured two new occupiers for the second floor of Styne House. The approx. 14,000 sq. ft second floor of the landmark six-storey building has been leased on multi-year agreements to ION Trading and NTT DATA, both relocating from Ballsbridge. ION Trading will occupy approx. 9,000 sq. ft, while NTT DATA has taken approx. 5,000 sq. ft. The dual letting represents another step towards Iput’s goal of leasing more than 130,000 sq. ft of premium office space in 2025. Styne House, a 70,000 sq. ft multi-let office building overlooking Iveagh Gardens, has recently undergone an extensive refurbishment which has earned the building an A3 BER. The Business Post, 25th October
HOSPITALITY
Camden Street, Dublin 2 Planning files lodged with Dublin City Council (“DCC”) this week show that Balrath Investments Unlimited has applied to change the use of 1-4 Camden Street Lower, which currently houses a gym and a Fresh supermarket, to a 463-bed tourist hostel. Balrath Investments is one of dozens of property vehicles run by Eamonn Waters through his Sretaw family office. The building was put on the market for sale through Lisney in May 2016 and again at the end of May 2018, then guided at €4.3m through CBRE. Prominently located at the corner of Camden Street Lower and Montague Street, the 1930s building is a protected structure and was originally built as a department store. Balrath Investments now plans to add two extra floors to bring the building to six floors, with a courtyard, retail options, and a cafe on the ground floor, as well as a communal space in the basement area. DCC is due to make its decision in mid-December. The Currency, 24th October
INDUSTRIAL
Ballycoolin, Dublin 15 Construction is under way on five logistics units at Stadium Business Park, which are being developed by Dunquin Capital in partnership with Bridges Fund Management. The units will extend to a total of 96,000 sq. ft upon completion, and range in size from 15,873 sq. ft to 22,799 sq. ft. The units are being made available to let through CBRE and JLL at a rent of €18.50 psf. The development is one of a small number of speculatively built multi-let industrial schemes in Dublin in nearly two decades. With much of the capital’s existing stock now outdated and unsuited to the needs of today’s occupiers, the Stadium Business Park units are expected to be the subject of strong demand. The scheme is being built to LEED Gold sustainability standards and will have an A BER rating. Stadium Business Park is located within easy reach of Dublin city centre, Dublin Airport and Dublin Port Tunnel and has road frontage on to Ballycoolin Road. The Irish Times, 22nd October
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Stepaside, Dublin 18 Xestra Asset Management has paid €10m for a portfolio of 34 apartments at the Parkview development at Stepaside in south Dublin. The 34 units are distributed throughout the scheme and consist of a mix of five one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom apartments and nine three-bedroom apartments, along with 96 car-parking spaces. It is understood that 30 of the units are vacant at present. While a spokesman for Xestra declined to comment on the transaction, The Irish Times understands the company intends to refurbish the apartments before offering them for sale on an individual basis on the open market. Developed originally by Fleming Construction in 2007, Parkview occupies an elevated site off the Enniskerry Road next to the Belarmine and Aiken’s Village residential schemes. The Irish Times, 22nd October
Dublin Airport Des and Ulick McEvaddy’s DA Terminal 3 Ltd is in active negotiations with five farmers to buy land for a new €80m motorway western access route from the west of Dublin Airport. The company, which already controls a 262-acre site west of the airport that sits between its three runways, has long pursued an ambition to develop the land. The McEvaddy led group could seek to build the €80m dual carriageway itself as part of its long-held ambitions to open up the landbank to its full potential, said a source. But the group has also made no secret of its desire to sell the strategic site, potentially to DAA. The group also expects to lodge a full planning application for a major pharma related logistics hub on part of the strategic landbank by the end of this month. That plan could proceed without the new road access but any further development, including the aspiration to build an independent third terminal on the site, would require a new airport access road to be built to connect to the M2 motorway 4km to the west. Fingal County Council’s masterplan for the area already includes the proposed new road link, which would run 4km from the Cherryhound interchange on the M2, just west of St Margaret’s across an area of open farmland and into the airport campus between its two main parallel runways. The Sunday Independent, 27th October
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