Tommy Barker www.irishexaminer.com
AN iconic building in Foxrock, Co Dublin, which hit the headlines in July over a rent dispute has been bought, in an off-market deal, for over €1.5m as, separately, a UK investor Development Securities also swept up two other Dublin buys, for a combined €16m.
Increasingly active investment firm Ireland World Investments (IWI) acquired The Gables (originally Findlaters) in the leafy and affluent Foxrock village in a just-concluded deal worth €1.5m.
It followed the resolution of a rent row after a summer stand-off over a repossession move between the building’s owner Daphne Kaye and tenants McCabes, who run restaurant and wine bar The Gables there. It’s the latest in a series of €1m-plus purchases in Cork and Dublin by IWI, who predict they will have acquired €100m in investments by 2016.
IWI MD Richard Coffey said the issues which led to July’s “tense stand-off” between the previous owners and operators were resolved prior to IWI securing the landmark building, by the entrance to Leopardstown Golf Club, on the intersection of Torquay, Brighton, and Westminister Roads.
He said they were pleased to add it to what was a fast-growing multi million-investment property portfolio. In the past year, IWI secured a range of investments let to multi-nationals and Government agencies, such as McDonalds and KFC in Charlestown Dublin, Deloitte HQ in Lapps Quay Cork, Tesco Express Talbot Street Dublin (for c€1.5m). It also recently acquired Block D Bray Civic Centre in another off-market c €10m-plus deal, with private investment banking and private equity group Evans Randal.
Bantry-born Richard Coffey is partnered in IWI by ex-Bank of Scotland exec Ronan Killeen, and with other planned purchases, should have an investment property portfolio close to a €100m valuation in 2016, they say.
Meanwhile, also in Dublin, UK-based Development Securities has bought two commercial properties — the 43,000 sq ft Donnybrook House (next to the capital’s new Arthur Maynes Bar,) as well as the Charlemont Clinic, both for redevelopment, for a combined €16.1 million.
Costing €9m, Donnybrook House is a vacant D4 1970s office property on a 0.9 acre site, with a further 10,000 sq ft at basement space, plus 40 car spaces.
Development Securities plan to start redevelopment in Q2 2015, at a further €8m capital cost. And, by the canal in D2, Charlemont Clinic was bought for €7.1m, on 0.95 acres, also to be redeveloped.
Development Securities’ director Mathew Wiener said the acquisitions were part of a long-term strategy within the Dublin market, having previously bought Burlington House and Robswall.
“We believe Dublin is a great place for us to do business as it is a market that is returning to growth and liquidity, with a positive business environment and renewed sense of opportunity,” said Mr Weiner, noting they have 4.5million sq ft of future developments planned across the UK.