Green Reit takes full control of Central Park in €155m deal

Property investment group Green Reit is to acquire the 50 per cent stake in the Central Park development in Dublin that it doesn't own in a deal valued at €155 million.

The purchase price is 2.7 per cent higher than the valuation for the June valuation for the project and reflects a value of €428 per square foot and an equivalent yield of 5.6 per cent on the investment assets.

The estimated all-in cost for Green Reit in taking full control of Central Park is estimated at €160 million. The group said the cost would be debt funded partly through the company's revolving €85 million credit facility with Barclays and by Green Reit taking over the vendor's 50 per cent of the Bank of Ireland debt secured against the properties.

Completion of the deal, which is conditional on the approval of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, is expected to close by mid-January.

Green and then joint venture partner Kennedy Wilson bought Central Park in Leopardstown early last year for €310 million, with Green taking possession of the offices and Kennedy Wilson assuming ownership of the apartments. The development comprises five substantial office blocks, a retail building and a multi-family complex with 272 apartments. The complex was a Treasury Holdings project before coming under the control of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

"We are delighted to acquire full control of Central Park, which is widely acknowledged as Ireland's premier business park. The development of Block H, totalling 147,000 square feet, is now well underway and the park is fully occupied following our latest lease deal to Sage for 45,000 square feet," said Pat Gunne, chief executive of Green Reit.

“We are excited to be delivering this building into the market in the early stages of the Dublin office development cycle, with estimated completion in December 2016. Our intention, on the back of this acquisition, is to sell a number of assets in 2016 in order to stay within our intended total gearing level of 25 per cent,” he added.