€21.5m for ready-to-go office scheme on Dublin quays

Irish commercial real estate advisers QRE are selling an office development opportunity on Burgh Quay, close to O’Connell Bridge in Dublin 2, with a guide price of €21.5 million.

The sale by the Castlepark property company follows the recent approval by An Bord Pleanála of plans for the redevelopment of the landmark Scotch House office block with a new Grade A office building with Leed Gold standard finishes.

The new Scotch House will be a significant improvement on the existing 1980s building and will extend to 3,871sq m (41,600sq ft) with retail facilities on the ground floor and 12 basement parking spaces.

Seven floors

The accommodation will be arranged over seven floors with full-height glazing and double frontage along the river Liffey. There will be two new penthouse floors with 190sq m (2,000sq ft) of terraces providing panoramic views over the city centre.

Typical floor plates will be around 600sq m (6,500sq ft) with levels six and seven extending to 510sq m (5,500sq ft) and 418s q m (4,500sq ft).

The sale of Scotch House comes at a time of speculation that many companies will move some of their operations to other parts of the EU as a result of the Brexit vote if access to the single market is lost. Conor Whelan of QRE says that the "inevitable consequence for a number of UK companies will be the relocation to an EU base and Dublin is being touted as a particularly popular alternative".

He said the Dublin office market continued to benefit from strong occupier demand.

This was particularly focused on city centre locations with about 80 per cent of all take up in Q2 this year within Dublin city centre where the vacancy rate is now about 3 per cent.

QRE says prime rents now stand at €645 a sq m (€60 a sq ft) and pre-lettings are now becoming a factor of the market with a number of significant pre-lettings agreed within the last year.

Whelan said the location of Scotch House was unrivalled in terms of profile, public transport and staff amenities and he believed a wide range of end users would consider the development opportunity including tech firms, professional service companies and Government bodies.