18th November (Issue 523)
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
Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath Tesco is due to open its new anchor store at The Willows in Dunshaughlin in the coming weeks. With over 860 homes on-site, Hooke MacDonald is now seeking occupiers for three of the adjoining units at the development’s commercial centre. The available properties include one ground-floor retail unit and two fully fitted medical suites. All three units are positioned next to Tesco’s store, with shared surface parking and direct pedestrian access through the scheme. The retail unit extends to 1,292 sq. ft and would be suited to convenience retail, pharmacy, cafe or service retail operators and the quoting rent is €40,000 a year. The two medical suites each extend to 2,718 sq. ft and come to the market fully fitted with consultation rooms, waiting areas, HVAC and staff facilities. The quoting rent is €45,000 per suite a year. The Irish Times, 11th November
Merchants Quay, Cork City More than a decade after it left the city, HMV is making a high street comeback, with a new store set to open in Merchants Quay in time for Christmas. In a deal brokered between Savills and Bannon, the music and entertainment retailer has taken out a 10-year lease on the outlet, at a rent of €90,000 pa. Previously occupied by Dealz, which closed earlier this year, the 3,000 sq. ft unit will become the city’s newest record store. Just two other units on the mall remain vacant, with Savills in discussion with potential tenants in relation to both units. The decision by HMV to open a store in Cork, its third in the Republic, is part of a broader European growth strategy for the brand, which has also opened new stores in the UK and the Netherlands. HMV reopened its Dublin store in 2023 and a Limerick store last year. The Irish Examiner, 12th November
INDUSTRIAL
North Dublin The UK’s largest urban logistics property developer and asset manager is closing in on the purchase, for over €60m, of a large-scale industrial portfolio. Chancerygate is understood to have seen off competing offers for The North Gate portfolio, a collection of 12 properties distributed across a total gross external area of 341,900 sq. ft at Furry Park Industrial Estate and North Dublin Corporate Park. The portfolio, which is fully let, was offered to the market by Savills on behalf of Iput at a guide price of €55m in September. Seven of the properties are located at the Furry Park scheme while the remaining five units are located in North Dublin Corporate Park. The Irish Times, 11th November
Swords Road, Dublin 9 Chancerygate is also currently in the process of developing a logistics scheme comprising 119,500 sq. ft of space at a site on Swords Road in Santry. The new urban logistics park will comprise 13 units ranging in size from 3,600 sq. ft to 22,370 sq. ft. Airport Trade Park, as it will be known, will have a gross development value of approx. €45m upon completion. Chancerygate and its longstanding investment partner, Bridges Fund Management, acquired the Santry scheme’s five-acre site for €4.5m from Carey Building Contractors in 2022. The site’s former owners had used the property previously for office accommodation and civil engineering yard space. In addition to Dublin, Chancerygate also has European offices in Madrid and Lisbon. The Irish Times, 11th November
Newtown, Co. Dublin Rohan Holdings is seeking an occupier for Drake House, the new large-scale logistics facility it is developing with Castlebrowne Construction at Dublin Airport Logistics Park. Joint agents Cushman & Wakefield and Savills are marketing the building, which at 289,192 sq. ft is the largest stand-alone logistics unit being built in the Dublin market at present. Construction of the property started in the third quarter of this year and practical completion is expected in the second half of 2026. Drake House will have a clear internal height of 59 ft, giving occupiers far more storage capacity than that offered by the prevailing market standard of 46 ft. The building will have loading access via 24 dock levellers and four loading doors. In terms of its sustainability, the building is targeting BREEAM Excellent certification and an A3 Ber rating. The Irish Times, 11th November
PURPOSE BUILT STUDENT ACCOMMODATION
Grangegorman, Dublin 7 Commerz Real has paid €22.35m for the Swuite student accommodation complex in Grangegorman. The development, with 128 beds in 123 rooms across five floors, was acquired from its developer, the Iveragh Group, in an off-market transaction. The complex will be rebranded as Grangegorman House and operated on Commerz Real’s behalf by Mezzino, a company specialising in student apartments in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Each of the Swuite complex’s 123 rooms has a private bathroom, while groups of six to eight rooms share a communal kitchen. The building also features common areas that include lounges, study rooms and a cafe. The scheme is currently fully let and is expected to benefit long-term from the strong demand for student housing in Dublin, which has about 90,000 third-level students at present. Swuite is located next to TUD’s main campus at Grangegorman. Commerz Real was advised on the transaction by Savills, while the seller was advised by Cushman & Wakefield. The Irish Times, 11th November
OFFICE
Harcourt Street, Dublin 2 Iput has secured permission to demolish part of the Harcourt Centre and build a new office block on the site. The company applied for permission in July to knock down blocks 2 and 3 of the Harcourt Centre and build a new 11-storey building on the site. The proposed new development, which would span approx. 196,000 sq. ft, would replace the existing eight-storey structure on the corner of Harcourt Street and Charlemont Street. Dublin City Council has now approved the proposal by Iput, paving the way for a large expansion of the existing 86,000 sq. ft building on the site. Most of the new building would be made up of 189,000 sq. ft of office space, with a further 6,500 sq. ft set aside for cultural or community space and a small café. The Business Post, 18th November
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Hook Peninsula, Co. Wexford. Loftus Hall has been sold for €3m. The property, which sits on 68 acres overlooking Hook Peninsula and Hook Lighthouse, has been acquired by investor Patrick McDermott. He is also the founder of Meath-based Star Stone Property Group, whose portfolio includes High Street Ashbourne, which it acquired for €12.5m, and Southgate Shopping Centre in Drogheda, which it purchased for €13.2m. Star Stone has completed a number of deals in Dublin and Cork with backing from London-based bookmaker and owner of Star Sports Ben Keith, and Brighton FC owner Anthony Bloom. Loftus Hall briefly comprises a detached nine-bay, three-storey house with a total gross internal area of 26,487 sq. ft. In 2022, Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan’s Oakmount paid €1.75m to acquire Loftus Hall and set about restoring and converting the property into a boutique hotel. While offers of €4m were sought initially, Mr McDermott moved to secure ownership of the property when the price was reduced to €3m. The Irish Times, 11th November
Swords, Co. Dublin A 1.38 acre site at Forster Way, currently in use as a car park, is being offered to the market by JLL with full planning permission for the development of 79 apartments at a guide price of €6.2m. Located just 50 metres from Main Street in Swords, the subject site currently comprises a 105 space surface-level car park. The facility is being operated by Euro Car Parks on a short-term contract and produced a net operating income of €395,000 in 2024. There is scope to increase the car park’s revenue with an additional 29 car spaces recently delineated within the site’s boundary. The site’s medium to longer term potential is contained in the planning permission granted by Fingal County Council in July 2024 for 79 apartments, 2,248 sq. ft of retail space and a two-storey senior citizen centre extending to 8,686 sq. ft. The approved development is to be laid out over six storeys over a single-level basement. The Irish Times, 11th November
Dublin Evara is understood to have paid approx. €50m for three south Dublin sites with the potential for more than 600 new homes. The price equates to an average of €1.22m per acre. The land in Kilternan is located on opposite sides of the recently opened Glenamuck District Distributor Road. The land involves two separate acquisitions extending to a combined 21 acres. These are zoned for housing and have potential for 350 new homes, subject to planning permission. Evara envisages a mix of two-bed, three-bed and four-bed homes with planning applications due to be lodged this year and early in 2026. The Citywest land extends to 20 acres and is zoned for residential development. Proposals are currently going through the LRD pre-planning process with South Dublin County Council and Evara expects that a planning application could be lodged later this year. It is proposing to develop 269 homes as part of a combined 611 home planning application being lodged in partnership with an adjoining landowner. The Irish Independent, 13th November
Tralee, Co. Kerry A development land bank with rental income in Tralee has come to the market through McQuinn Property Services guiding €4.5m. With prospects for up to 140 homes as well as a major student village, the land extends to 32.8 acres is in the suburb of Ballybeggan adjacent to Munster Technological University in Kerry Technology Park. Fully zoned under the Tralee development plan, it is available in one or multiple lots: Lot 1 zoned R1 residential extends to 13.38 acres; Lot 2 zoned C7 – Education, Innovation & R&D extends to 17.14 acres; Lot 3 zoned C2.1: Industrial, enterprise & employment includes a commercial yard with residential unit and extends to 1.72 acres; Lot 4 zoned Buffer/conservation/amenity/landscape protection extends to 1.2 acres. A feasibility study by Kane Williams Architects indicates that the C7-zoned lands could support a student village for up to 900 students and this site is guiding €2.1m. The Irish Independent, 13th November
Swords, Co. Dublin Quantum Property Consultants are guiding €2.5m for 7.66 acres located on Cooks Road, Forrest Great, Swords. The land contains some large steel frame constructed agricultural buildings with corrugated exterior steel façade, measuring approx. 30,000 sq. ft. There are also some temporary cabins on site. The proposed Metro Link station at “Ridgewood” is approx. 3kms away. There are currently 20 operators utilising the site with verbal agreements in place producing an annual income in the region of €156k which is set to increase to approx. €250k in January 2026. No formal lease agreements are in place. The site is located in an area that is designated “Greenbelt” under the Fingal Development Plan 2023-2026. Quantum Property Consultants Press Release, 14th November
Drogheda, Co. Louth Paul Anderson is preparing to build 172 apartments and a six-storey hotel next door to the Scotch Hall shopping centre. Anderson bought the Scotch Hall mall for approx. €21m in 2023. In separate applications filed with Louth County Council in recent weeks, Hall Scotch Venture 2, a company associated with Anderson, applied to build the schemes on the two adjoining sites. It is looking to build a €36m apartment development, comprising five six-storey blocks. It will include a crèche and three retail units, and be located just 100m from the mall. In 2021, the previous owner of Scotch Hall, developer Gerry Barrett, sought to build 275 apartments, including a 12-storey block, on the site, but its planning permission was quashed by the High Court. If the hotel is approved, it will comprise 107 bedrooms, a lobby, bar and dining area, with reserved car parking spaces allocated in the shopping centre car park. Drogheda is without a large operational hotel after the D Hotel, which is also adjacent to the shopping centre, was used to provide accommodation for international protection applicants. That contract is due to expire in March and its renewal is uncertain. The Sunday Times, 16th November
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