German investor pays €94m for EBS Dublin headquarters

UK property company Henderson Park Capital is understood to have secured about €94 million from the sale of the Dublin headquarters of the EBS Building Society to the German investment fund, KGAL.

The property at 2 Burlington Road forms part of the Capital Collection, a portfolio of five prime Dublin offices that Henderson Park acquired as part of its €1.34 billion buyout of Green Reit in 2019.

Eastdil Secured was formally appointed in January of this year to handle the sale of the Capital Collection in one or more lots. The portfolio, which is distributed across Dublin's core central business district also includes One Molesworth Street, 5 Harcourt Road, 30 to 33 Molesworth Street, and Fitzwilliam Hall. Henderson Park is understood to seeking in excess of € 400 million from the overall sale of the five properties.

KGAL’s acquisition of 2 Burlington Road for € 94 million will be widely welcomed by the market, coming as it does in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.

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Developed in 2002, the property is a six-storey building comprising some 86,000sq ft of grade A office space and 33 car parking spaces.

Fully let

Fully let to the EBS Building Society until 2027, the property is well-located immediately adjacent to the Grand Canal and Baggot Street. Neighbouring occupiers in the area include Bank of Ireland, Sky, Amazon, LinkedIn and CBRE.

Number 2 Burlington Road represents KGAL's second investment in the Dublin office market. In 2018, the German-headquartered fund paid Irish property group MM Capital € 25.5 million for 31-36 Golden Lane. Located just off George's Street the three-storey office block is fully-let to New Relic International, a San Francisco-based software analytics company. MM Capital had acquired the property for about €17 million in 2017, and sold it to KGAL after carrying out an extensive refurbishment.

In a statement confirming KGAL's purchase of 2 Burlington Road, the company's managing director, André Zücker, said: "Dublin is a very attractive location for global IT companies, with Google, Facebook and Amazon all operating their European head offices in the Irish capital. These companies are continuing to experience dynamic growth and fuel the office market.

“Ireland has the youngest population in the EU and the level of education there is high; and demographic forecasts indicate growth ahead.”

Pipeline

Nick Weber, founding partner and CEO at Henderson Park Capital, said: “The sale of 2 Burlington Road is consistent with our intended business plan and enables us to accelerate investment into our Irish development pipeline. Despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, this asset attracted significant interest from major international real estate investors, highlighting their confidence in both the Irish commercial property market and Ireland’s economy over the long term.

“The sale also underlines institutional conviction in the important role that offices will continue to play in our working lives and, as a result, the ability of prime Dublin office assets to deliver stable and consistent returns.”

“With a permanent operating presence established in Ireland and a strong local team to manage our existing portfolio and support our Irish development pipeline, we have exciting plans across our various assets in Dublin.”