€5.75m for Navan offices

A HIGH quality office investment in Navan’s IDA Business and Technology Park goes for sale today at an average yield of 8.1 per cent. The distinctive new two-storey building currently under construction will serve as Irish headquarters for the Italian insurance giant Generali International.

Dublin agent Murphy Mullhall is guiding a sale price of €5.75 million for the two-storey, 2,539sq m (27,329sq ft) building which is being developed by leading construction company PJ Walls. It was pre-let by Murphy Mulhall on a new 20-year full repairing lease with a break after year 15.

The rent for the initial five years of €459,740 will rise by a guaranteed 10 per cent after five years and by a further 10 per cent after 10 years. The selling agent stresses that the guaranteed uplift in rents and the strength of the covenant should have a broad appeal among investors. The building was designed by award-winning architects KMD and is due for completion next August. There will be 125 surface car-parking spaces.

Generali has been in Navan since 1999 and has steadily increased its workforce. It announced earlier this year that it hoped to double the staff by 2012. Generali International is part of the Italian-based Generali Group which has 85,000 employees in 68 countries. The overall group has more than €400 billion in assets under management for 70 million clients.

Robert Murphy of Murphy Mulhall said the attraction of the investment was four fold: the strength and stability of the tenant; the quality of the design and the building; the location within 35 minutes’ drive of Dublin Airport; and the guaranteed rental growth every five years. He said there were several small to medium-sized funds as well as private investors looking for safe investments producing better returns than bank deposit rates.

Navan’s IDA park, just off the M3 motorway, is home to several local and international occupiers including Quinn Insurance, Europe Assist, Lir Chocolates, Welsh Allyn and the Department of Justice and Law Reform.