Paddy McKillen jnr’s Oakmount pays €17m for Sandyford site

Developer Paddy McKillen jnr’s Oakmount and partners, Core Capital, have paid about €17 million to acquire a prime, ready-to-go office site at Sandyford in south Dublin.

The site, which extends to 5.26 acres on Blackthorn Avenue adjacent to Sandyford Luas stop, was brought to market by agent CBRE on behalf of Irish private equity house Ardstone Capital and US-headquartered partners, Sherman Capital, at a guide price of €20 million in March of last year.

The subject site has two live planning permissions for office developments extending to between 35,000 and 42,000sq m (376,736 and 452,084sq ft). Designed by Henry J Lyons, the so-called Eden Plaza scheme is spread over five modern blocks, with ancillary space for a cafe and retail unit.

Ardstone Capital and Sherman Capital acquired the site from Nama for €6.5 million in 2013, but it previously changed hands during the boom in October 2007 for a figure "in the late €70s million" to property developer and businessman Reg Tuthill and Derek O'Leary, a business partner.

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The site had been owned for many years by Ulster Bank – it had a data centre there – and was part of a €1.5 billion portfolio the bank parent, Royal Bank of Scotland, sold to Morgan Stanley Real Estate at the end of 2005.

The Sandyford Business District (SBD) is widely regarded as Dublin’s top suburban office location with easy access to the M50, N11 and the Luas while the area is to have a stop on the recently announced MetroLink rail service with connectivity to Dublin city centre and airport.

The area is home to Microsoft, Bank of America Merril Lynch, Vodafone, AIB, Google and Salesforce.