Aviva seeks €50m for Nassau House in Dublin city centre

A substantial retail and office building in Dublin’s south city centre has been offered for sale privately to a number of leading development and investment companies.

The British multinational insurance company Aviva is apparently hoping to secure in excess of €50 million for Nassau House, a five-storey block with a row of shops fronting on to Nassau Street and Dawson Street.

The off-market sale is certain to attract a range of buyers because of its prime location between the bottom of Grafton Street and Dawson Street, and almost directly across the road from the side entrance for Trinity College. It is one of the busiest retail pitches in the city centre, attracting a huge number of shoppers as well as tourists.

Legal contracts

Companies invited to bid for the portfolio have had to sign legal contracts and give undertakings not to disclose details of the property for sale.

Max Reilly

of agents JLL, which is handling the low-key marketing campaign, said he would not be making any comment.

Nassau House has an overall floor area of about 9,290sq m (100,000sq ft) of which about 2.787sq m (30,000sq ft) is divided between the nine shops at street level.

The investment is producing a rental income of €3.5 million. Office space on the four upper floors is just as keenly sought after as the shops because of the convenient location.

Companies pitching for the dated 1970s buildings will have the option of redeveloping and enlarging the present facilities with possibly an eight-storey replacement block, including perhaps two storeys of retail facilities. The second choice would be to reclad and modernise the existing structure for substantially less than the cost of redeveloping the entire site.

Hibernian Insurance

Nassau House was originally built by Hibernian Insurance which rebranded in recent years under the Aviva parent company name.

Green REIT, one of the fastest-growing property companies in the city, is likely to take a close look at Nassau House because of its involvement in a fairly similar challenge around the corner in Dawson Street.

Green is awaiting the outcome of an appeal by An Taisce against the decision by Dublin City Council to allow the company to demolish the former Royal & Sun Alliance HQ at the junction of Dawson Street and Molesworth Street and replace it with a six-storey block. Green bought the controversial building last year for €23 million.

Consultants acting for the property company have told the city council that “in general, buildings that are older than 20 years of age are deemed to require considerable upgrading and are generally ignored in favour of more modern equivalents by occupiers and investors alike”.

Office tenants

The office tenants in Nassau Street include Bank of

Ireland

, which is contributing rents of €750,000,

Independent College

, which is paying €800,000 for space in the Dawson Street part of the building, and the Irish Clearing House, whose annual rental bill comes to €450,000. Other office tenants include Irish Shipbrokers; software specialists New Relic;

New Ireland Assurance

; Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland;

Irish Payments Services Organisation

; Irish Paper Clearing Co; the Institute of Banking and solicitors Good Murray Smith.

The House of Ireland, which specialises in Irish gifts such as Waterford Crystal and jewellery, is by far the largest retailer in the Nassau Street complex, occupying four shops as well as an office unit for which it pays a rent of about €200,000 per annum.

The other retailers on site include Tiger, Spar, Insomnia, the Irish Celtic Store and Oasis. Retail units along Dawson Street are occupied by Café Gray, Lemon Crepe and Mooch Frozen Yoghurt.