Standard Life in talks to put move from St Stephen’s Green on hold

Pension manager seeks to extend lease on Dublin HQ as owners seek buyer at €27m

Prospective purchasers of numbers 90-91 St Stephen's Green in Dublin 2 will be interested to learn of a development involving the building's tenant, Standard Life.

Having indicated its intention to vacate the building upon the expiration of its lease this September, the company is understood to be in negotiations with the present owners to extend its stay for a further 12 to 24 months. Standard Life’s current 10-year lease which expires on September 15th, 2021, is generating a passing rent of € 1.25 million per annum.

While the outcome of the discussions between the parties is not expected to impede the sales process, the buyer of the property may take some comfort from the additional rental income Standard Life would provide were it to remain in situ given the current level of uncertainty in the Dublin office market.

90-91 St Stephen’s Green is for sale through agent BNP Paribas Real Estate at a guide price of €27 million. The property currently comprises a four-storey over lower-ground floor modern second-generation office building with a mid-terrace Georgian façade. Extended and redeveloped in the 1980s, it extends to a net internal area of 2,470sq m (26,587sq ft) distributed over average floor plates of 493sq m (5,307sq ft).

READ MORE

The central location of the building’s core allows for the floor plates to be split if required, providing flexibility for a landlord when marketing the offices in the future. The building has 25 on-site car spaces at lower ground-floor level, with direct access off St Stephen’s Green, equating to a car park ratio of around 1:100sq m of office accommodation when compared to the modern city centre provision of 1:400sq m.

Interested parties may look to acquire the property with a view to delivering a more ambitious development involving the adjoining building. Numbers 92 and 93 St Stephen’s Green are on the market currently with Savills Ireland at a guide price of €18 million.

Numbers 90 and 91 St Stephen's Green are bounded to the south by the Iveagh Gardens, to the north by St Stephen's Green, and to the east and west by a range of blue-chip office occupiers including aircraft leasing specialist Aercap Holdings, US pharma giant Horizon Therapuetics, and the headquarters of US real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson at number 94.

Ronald Quinlan

Ronald Quinlan

Ronald Quinlan is Property Editor of The Irish Times