The Friends First Irish Property Fund, named Property Manager of the Year at the recent Irish Pension Awards, has added the Cairn House office block in Dublin’s South County Business Park to its fast-growing portfolio of properties.
The fund, recently acquired by Aviva, already manages more than €500 million of property assets. It spent an additional €7 million on acquiring the modern three-storey over-basement Cairn House, which extends to 2,352sq m (25,327sq ft) and is partly let to Fonua, a consumer electronics solutions provider. The 700sq m (7,600sq ft) on the second floor of the building is currently available to let through HWBC at €301 per sq m (€28 per sq ft).
The fund is also the owner of the adjoining Ardagh House (formerly Pelham House), which it acquired in 2015 and is fully let to the Ardagh Group, a global leader in packaging solutions.
According to Claire Solon, head of property at Friends First, the South County Business Park is in strong demand from occupiers wanting to avail of the high-quality office space close to the city and with connections to public transport and radial road networks.
Friends First has a number of redevelopment projects planned for the year ahead, including Blackrock Shopping Centre, Enterprise House office development in Blackrock, and the Royal Hibernian Way on Dawson Street, as well as new opportunities that will follow the sale of Friends First to Aviva.
Patrick Campion of HWBC advised Friends First on the purchase of Cairn House while Kyle Rothwell of CBRE acted for the vendor.
