€58m deal to buy unfinished One Albert Quay in Cork
Cork City’s newest and largest office block, One Albert Quay, has been purchased for up to €58m by Green Reit nine months ahead of its completion
The Irish property investment firm confirmed it had entered into a conditional contract for the acquisition of the building being constructed by John Cleary’s development company, JCD Group.
Green Reit said it expects total rent per annum from its new acquisition to range from €3.6m-€4.1m if full occupancy is achieved.
It pointed out that, of the 166,000sq ft of lettable area, agreements were recently signed with two tenants for 89,000sq ft.
Tyco is to take 75,000 sq ft for its global headquarters on a 20-year lease, with a tenant break in year 12. PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to take 14,000 sq ft on a 15-year lease with no breaks.
The total annual rent from the two pre-lettings is €2.1m.
Green Reit said the price it would pay will range from €55m to -€58m, depending on the letting position at the final payment date.
Pat Gunne, chief executive of Green Property Reit Ventures, said it will be Cork’s best office building and the first major city centre office development in Cork for over a decade. “The yield premium over Dublin is attractive, particularly with the Cork office rental market at an earlier stage in the recovery cycle,” he said.
A spokesman for JCD Group said it is already in detailed negotiations with other potential occupiers.
He said the sale is a huge vote of confidence in Cork and shows that investment firms view grade A developments in the city as prime acquisitions.
“Cork has recently experienced a large take up in office space. JCD have leased over 360,000sq ft of grade A office space over the past two years,” said the spokesman. “This includes multinational technology companies such as EMC, Tyco, VCE, Qualcomm and SolarWinds who have all increased their workforce over the period.
“Our experience has shown that delivering new grade A office space at up to 50% of the cost of the greater Dublin area, combined with Cork’s highly educated talent pool, has made Cork a European destination of choice for many multinational companies.”
