Dundrum office buildings and shops bought for €16.6m

Sale of three properties in Rockfield Central opposite Town Centre was €1.6m above guide


The internal construction firm Mac Group and Canadian asset managers Timbercreek have acquired two high-rise office buildings and two levels of shops in a third block at Rockfield Central in Dundrum, Dublin 14.

The companies paid €16.6 million – €1.6 million above the guide price – for the three properties, which are over 90 per cent occupied and produce a rental income of €1.2 million.

The property investment consultancy Investi, which acted for the new owners, forecasts that the properties will show significant rental growth and capital appreciation. Aidan Scully of Investi said there were six rent reviews outstanding at a time when suburban rents were now pushing back to the mid €20s per square foot.

Paul McKenna, chief executive of Mac Group, said they were pleased to add a Dublin investment product to their overall growth plan.

READ MORE

The company recently bought a serviced office building at 1-2 Leeson Street at a yield of 8 per cent as well as an industrial and office building on a half-acre site backing on to the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford.

The three Dundrum buildings were built between 2001 and 2004 by Gannon Homes as part of a broader development opposite Dundrum Town Centre. Two of the three blocks sold – the eight-storey north block with a floor area of 3,600sq m (38,750sq ft) and the six-storey south block extending to 2,360sq m (25,402 sq ft) – were built directly over the Luas railway line and the Balally stop, which links into the shopping centre.

The two levels of shopping within the east block face directly on to the Luas plaza. The main retail tenants are Mace, which pays a rent of €135,000, Brickyard bar (€110,000) and Rockfield Pharmacy (€93,394).

The highest rent, of €268,568, in the office blocks is paid by Mott MacDonald for 1,472sq m (15,846sq ft). Locomotion, a medical recruitment agency, pays €173,000 for 1,002sq m (10,796sq ft). Medserv and Affidea Diagnostics each pay more than €123,000 for between 686sq m (7,390sq ft) and 747sq m (8,040sq ft).

The sale was handled by Nicholas Corson of Finnegan Menton and Patricia Ward of Cushman & Wakefield.