Aldgate enters Irish office market with Sandyford buys

Aldgate Developments has emerged as the new owner of two high-profile sites in Dublin's Sandyford area, which it intends to develop as large office schemes.

Aldgate director Paul Molloy confirmed that the London-based company has acquired the former FAAC Electronics site, located at the entrance to Sandyford Industrial Estate, and the Innovation House site on nearby Arkle Road. It will lodge a planning application for a new scheme named Leopardstown West on the FAAC site.

The campus-style development will include four separate buildings extending to 36,603sq m (394,000sq ft). Aiming for delivery in 2019, each of the buildings will feature largely rectangular floorplates, floor-to-ceiling glazing and multiple entry points to each floor, enhancing the ease of subdividing or subleasing the space.

The Sandyford area has attracted a large number of multinationals, including Microsoft, Vodafone and Salesforce. The Leopardstown West campus is expected to attract an equally impressive class of tenant.

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In the ever-competitive market for talent, a key consideration for future occupiers will be staff amenities. Among the attractive features of Aldgate’s plans for the site are a 550m private running track, a substantial southwest-facing park, generous shower and changing facilities, and an on-site cafe/restaurant.

The location has strong transport links as the Sandyford and Central Park Luas stops are located just a few minutes’ walk away.

In addition, the Aircoach stops outside, the M50 is just a minute away by car, and there are a range of bus routes in the immediate vicinity and on the nearby N11 Quality Bus Corridor. The plans provide for 356 car-parking spaces and 225 bicycle spaces at basement level.

Office development

Nearby on Arkle Road, Aldgate already has planning permission for an office development of 20,253sq m (218,000sq ft). Each of the six floors in the building will have up to 3,250sq m (35,000sq ft) and can be subdivided in a variety of ways. This development will also feature amenities such as a ground-floor cafe/restaurant, 167 car-parking spaces, 124 bicycle spaces and extensive shower and changing areas.

The development, which will be completed in 2019, has good frontage on to Blackthorn Avenue and is located beside both Stillorgan and Sandyford Luas stops, the Aircoach and bus routes. The short drive to the M50 will be further reduced once the new ESB Link Road is in place, connecting adjacent Blackthorn Road directly to junction 14.

Aldgate Developments was founded by a number of experienced Irish individuals with backgrounds in finance, property and marketing. The company rose to prominence in 2013 with the launch of its Aldgate Tower project in London. The 16-storey office block has attracted such multinationals as Uber and Aecom to establish their UK headquarters there, and was later sold to investors for a reported £346 million (€411 million).

Elsewhere in London, Aldgate recently completed the development of a retail and office building in a joint venture with the City at 21 Lime Street. A 15-year lease for the entire office element was recently completed with Qatar Insurance Corporation.

Early interest

The Sandyford sites are Aldgate’s first investments in the Irish market, and a number of companies have expressed early interest in the developments. The overall plans highlight the growing attractiveness of office development in the Sandyford area, with prime suburban rents moving towards the €30/sq ft mark. An average of €28/sq ft was achieved at a recent letting of Block H, Central Park; another scheme, The Chase, is expecting rents of up to €29.50/sq ft.

The area has become equally attractive to tenants due to its strong transport links and the fact that Grade A office space is about half the €65/sq ft rate now applying to top city centre offices.

Aldgate’s newly acquired 1.66-acre Arkle Road site was on the market last year at an asking price of more than €6.5 million. It is believed that Aldgate paid close to that price. If so, this was significantly below the €10.16 million reportedly paid for the site in 2000.

When the FAAC site was last acquired at the height of the property boom, about €20 million per acre was paid, whereas Aldgate acquired its 4.265 acres last year for about €2.35 million per acre.

Speaking of Aldgate’s decision to choose Sandyford as its first development location outside of London, Mr Molloy cited “the attractiveness of Dublin as a place for multinationals to do business, but more specifically the attractiveness of the Sandyford-Leopardstown cluster for tenants, already evidenced by a long list of other multinational occupiers in the area”.

He said he views the two projects “as the best-located developments within the area, for a variety of profile, flexibility and transport connectivity reasons”.