Developer Pat Crean’s Marlet Property Group and its partner M&G Investments have secured a €238 million refinancing facility with Standard Chartered for College Square, the landmark office scheme they have developed in Dublin city centre.
Standard Chartered acted as sole underwriter, mandated lead arranger, and hedging bank for the transaction, which is understood to have been completed late on Wednesday night.
It qualifies as a Green Loan under the Green Loan Principles due to College Square being one of the most sustainable buildings in Ireland, having achieved LEED Platinum Certification and targeting WiredScore Platinum and A3 BER ratings.
Commenting on the deal, Marlet’s CEO Pat Crean said: “We are delighted to have closed our first financing facility with Standard Chartered. This new facility brings us through the next chapter of the College Square development while Workday completes preparations to occupy the building and our PRS platform, DUBLIV, completes the leasing of the residential units.”
Ronan O’Dowd, global head of commercial real estate at Standard Chartered said: “This green loan financing facility underscores our commitment to backing transformative developments that deliver long-term value for communities, investors, and the city itself.”
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News of the refinancing deal comes just seven weeks after Marlet and M&G completed a deal with US technology giant Workday for some 38,648 sq m (416,000 sq ft) of the office space at College Square. The company’s accommodation represents the entirety of College Square’s “super-prime” office space and is the equivalent of five and a half football pitches.
The College Square deal is the largest single office letting to have taken place in the European office market since 2021. The US enterprise technology giant’s decision to base its operations there was first revealed by The Irish Times in August of last year.
Developed on sites occupied formerly by Apollo House and the neighbouring College House, College Square is a major mixed-use scheme comprising a total of 50,170 sq m (540,000 sq ft) of LEED Platinum office accommodation and 1,580 sq m (17,000 sq ft) of retail space distributed over 10 floors. The development has an overall height of 22 storeys owing to the inclusion of 58 high-end apartments on 12 floors above the office element of the scheme.
