The 5 Biggest Leasing And Investment Deals Of 2017
The Dublin office leasing market had another strong year in 2017 with take-up and rents closing in on 2007 peaks.
On the investment side, volumes look set to come in at around €2.5B worth of sales for the year — down from the last few years, but experts say the market will remain steady.
Here is a look at the top deals of the year.
LEASING
1. Indeed, Capital Dock
The biggest leasing deal of the year was actually across two buildings —100 and 300 Capital Dock was leased to Indeed in December.
The company leased 205K SF between the two buildings, giving the job listing website a presence in the Silicon Dock area of the city where vacancy rates are less than 1%.
2. Beckett Building, Facebook
The Beckett building in East Wall was let to social media giant Facebook in March. The new building is expected to accommodate 800 employees over 188K SF in Dublin’s North Docks.
This is the first occupation of the building since it was completed approximately a decade ago. It was bought by the Comer group six years ago and leased for €24/SF.
3. Block H, Central Park, AIB
Outside of the city centre, Block H, Central Park in Sandyford was let to AIB by Green REIT in March. It was agreed to let just over 150K SF at a rent of €28/SF.
4. Miesian Plaza, HSE
In April, the Department of Health signed a lease for Miesen Plaza where rents were quoted in the region of €60/SF by agent Knight Frank on behalf of businessman Larry Goodman.
The Department took over 143K SF of the former Bank of Ireland headquarters, which is being upgraded this year at a cost of around €100M.
5. 10 Molesworth St., AIB
AIB signed a lease at 10 Molesworth St. in October. The bank, which is still largely owned by the taxpayer, will occupy the entire seven-storey, 114K SF building on a 20-year lease. Rent for the building, owned by IPUT, is reported to be €57.50/SF.
INVESTMENT
1. City Quay, Irish Life
Irish Life outbid five overseas investors to nab the City Quay development for €125M.
Pre-let to Grant Thornton for its Dublin headquarters, the eight-story block is set to have a rent of more than €6M a year and will provide a net initial return of about 4.65%.
2. JP Morgan, 200 Capital Dock
JP Morgan bought the Capital Dock building for €125M from Kennedy Wilson in May to accommodate 1,000 staff in the wake of Brexit.
3. 100-101 Grafton St., Irish Life
German fund GLL Real Estate sold 100-101 Grafton St. to Irish Life for approximately €50M in May. The AIB building has frontage on Grafton and Wicklow streets.
The bank trades on a 20-year lease from July 2010, at an annual rent of €1.8M.
It is expected that the German fund manager might also flip its other two buildings on Grafton Street, let to River Island and the Cath Kidson, following the sharp recovery of this end of the market.
4. 4-5 Harcourt Centre, Ares
The Clancourt Group sold 4-5 Harcourt Centre in Dublin 2 for €47M to fund manager Ares.
The office space is being occupied by government tenants, including the Offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the National Consumer Agency and the National Crime Council, for a rent of €1.3M a year.
5. 21 Charlemont St., La Française Group
Rohan Holding sold 21 Charlemont St. to La Française Group, a French fund manager, for about €45M in September.
It was pre-let to communications company ViaSat at a rent of €55K/SF.
The building has 37K SF of office space in a six-storey-over-basement building and will generate an annual rent roll of about €2M.
Upcoming
There are a number of deals that may close by the end of December, which could skew these figures, CBRE head of research Marie Hunt said. These include The Square shopping centre, Dublin Landings and Dublin Living.
