Goodman jnr pays Iput €30m for Dublin city-centre office block

Businessman Laurence Goodman jnr looks to have benefited from the current correction in the Dublin office market and the market for older offices particularly, with a €30 million deal for Nos 73 – 83 Lower Mount Street.

The price paid by Mr Goodman, the son of 87-year-old billionaire beef baron Larry Goodman, represents a 20 per cent discount on the €37.5 million agent Savills had been guiding when it brought the building to the market on behalf of Irish property company Iput last February.

The €30 million sale price equates to a capital value of just under €500 per sq ft and will provide Goodman jnr with a 7 per cent return on his investment based on the property’s current rental income.

Quite apart from the relative attractiveness of that yield, Mr Goodman will have the guarantee of 100 per cent government income for just under five years to break and eight years to lease expiry as the building is fully let to the Office of Public Works on full repairing and insuring (FRI) leases. Existing tenants include the Revenue Commissioners.

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The building also offers longer-term redevelopment potential in the heart of Dublin’s central business district. Currently the property, which has two separate entrances, is split by way of Timberlay and Ballaugh House. The offices are arranged over lower-ground and four upper floors, extending to a total net internal area of 5,593sq m (60,207sq ft).

Iput secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála in 2021 for the demolition and redevelopment of the property to incorporate a state-of-the-art five-storey over-basement office building extending to 117,177sq ft (GIA). The approved development features external terraces on the fifth floor and provides for 90 bicycle spaces and 20 car-parking spaces at basement level.

While the market for older Dublin office buildings faces a particular challenge with both investors and occupiers shying away from stock with lower environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, Iput’s decision to dispose of 73 – 83 Lower Mount Street is in keeping with its long-standing practice of recycling and redeploying capital to drive income and capital growth.

Last year, Iput secured a total of €40 million from its sale of Victoria Secret’s flagship store on Grafton Street and Tesco’s Lower Baggot Street premises to Beauparc Utilities founder Eamon Waters.