Land bank near Dublin Airport for €10m

Agent Knight Frank is quoting more than €10 million for one of the most significant warehouse and distribution land banks to come on the Dublin market for years.

The lands, on the other side of the M50 to the Ikea store in Ballymun, extend to 166.43 acres, and are being sold on the instructions of receiver Grant Thornton.

They are close to Horizon Logistics Park, which backs on to Dublin Airport, and are about 1.5km from Junction 4 off the M50.

Accessed from the Silloge Road overbridge, the land bank also includes the proposed Merryfalls stop on the planned Metro West corridor.

Under the Fingal Development Plan 2011-2017, 126.61 acres of the holding is zoned “warehouse and distribution”, with the balance zoned rural (32.05 acres) and open space (5.17 acres).

However, the draft 2017-2023 Fingal development plan proposes rezoning the entire holding to “general employment” with the exception of five acres for open space.

Evan Lonergan of Knight Frank says that, based on the current zoning and proposed rezoning, the lands could provide a "significant quantum of accommodation for logistics, warehousing and high-tech manufacturing".

He said an incoming purchaser would have the chance to create a landmark business park just minutes from Dublin Airport.

In line with the economic recovery, the warehousing and distribution market is enjoying healthy growth and some speculative development is under way in a sector which was hard hit by the crash. The vacancy rate in Dublin’s industrial market stands at 14 per cent but a lot of this is older and obsolete space.

The land bank is currently in agricultural use with two houses and some farm buildings.