German buyer pays €50m for No 2 Dublin Landings.
Dublin Landings
A German investment manager has swooped to buy a substantial Dublin north docklands office building for about €50m, or about half the price for which it previously sold.
Known as 2 Dublin Landings, it was sold in 2018 for €106.5m but last year receivers put it on the market with a €60m guide price.
The sale price also falls short of the €60m-plus loan which the German bank Helaba extended to the building’s outgoing owners, South Korean real estate investment trust JR AMC and Hana Financial Investment, when they acquired the property in November 2018 through German investor KanAm Grund.
The 100,500 sq ft building had at one stage been fully let to serviced office provider WeWork at a rent of €5.38m, but after WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, it renegotiated its lease.
That saw a 25.7pc reduction in rent and a reduction in WeWork’s space to 75pc of the building. The revised lease runs until to 2038 equating to a weighted average unexpired lease term of approximately 12.5 years.
The renegotiation also left vacant penthouse space which, with views over the city, could have significant asset management opportunities for increased rental income.
Seán Ryan McCaffrey of Savills said: “This transaction underscores the strengthening Investor sentiment for Dublin offices, supported by considerably improved occupational demand.”
Dublin Landings
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Monday, November 10th
The LEED Platinum and BER A3 certified office block is one of five office blocks built by Seán Mulryan’s Ballymore in partnership with Singaporean-headquartered Oxley at their wider one million sq ft mixed-use Dublin Landings development close to the Central Bank.
Irish investment watchers are taking encouragement that a German investor of MEAG’s quality is interested in the Irish market after the German sector had been cautious in recent years.
It is even more encouraged that MEAG is interested in the Dublin residential market as it is understood to be close to completing a deal being brokered by CBRE to acquire the 18 Newmarket Square build-to-rent project in The Liberties, Dublin 8, for close to €80M.
With 134 apartments as well as 516 sq m of retail space, this was developed by Revelate Capital, an Irish specialist private equity real estate business, along with Valpre Capital, a London-based private equity real estate investment firm and a UBS-owned real estate platform, Aventicum Real Estate. These apartments are currently available to rent.