A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Overseas investor pays €2.5m for Bill Cullen car showrooms
An overseas investor has paid about €2.5 million for Bill Cullen’s modern garage and showrooms at Airside Motor Park in Swords, Co Dublin.
The sale was triggered by Tom Kavanagh and Ken Fennell of Kavanagh Fennell, appointed receivers by Ulster Bank, which had apparently advanced €12 million in loans to Mr Cullen’s Glencullen Holdings. A second dealership in Liffey Valley is expected to sell in the coming weeks.
The Swords building is regarded as one of the best in the Airside motor mall, partially because it has frontage on to the entrance. The building extends to 2,372sq m (25,533sq ft) and includes a purpose-built showroom, offices and service centre, as well as an ancillary wash/valet bay to the rear.
Brendan Smyth of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald originally sought €2.6 million for the property last November and indicated that if a purchaser did not emerge the receivers would consider leasing the premises at a rent of €260,000 per annum.
New tenant for former Stringfellows
The former Stringfellows nightclub at the Parnell Centre in Parnell St, D1, has finally got a replacement tenant with the decision by discounter EuroGiant to open its latest shop there. Stephen McCarthy of Savills negotiated a rent of close to €150,000 for the 1,135sq m (12,216sq ft) on the ground and first floors. The letting was for receiver Kieran Wallace of KPMG.
€550,000 for retail investment and apartments at Roch e' s Street
DTZ Sherry FitzGerald is seeking more than €550,000 for a retail investment at 37 Roche’s Street in Limerick which will show an initial yield of 10 per cent.
The building is let to Carlson Wagonlit Ireland, trading as Just Split travel agency, on a 35-year lease from 2000. The current rent of €54,916 per annum covers a ground floor retail area of 225.5sq m (2,427sq ft) and offices at first-floor level. There are two one-bedroom apartments on the first and second floors which can be let by the new owner. The sale is being carried out on the instructions of receiver Kieran Wallace of KPMG.
Georgia to lease Georgia
The state of Georgia has leased a Georgian office building in Dún Laoghaire for use as its new embassy.
The three-storey building at 4 Marine Road was recently refurbished by the owner, a local investor. The embassy is understood to be paying a rent of around €140 per sq m (€13 per sq ft) for the house which has a floor area of around 204sq m (2,200sq ft).
Sean Fox of Knight Frank handled the letting.
Ace Express for M1 Business Park
The former Brooks Thomas central distribution centre for timber products at the M1 Business Park in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, has been let to Ace Express which is based at Blake's Cross in north Dublin.
Ace Express plans to spend around €500,000 on fitting out the new facility which extends to 10,220sq m (110,000sq ft). The company operates a worldwide freight service to and from Ireland through a partnership network of 450 offices in 150 countries. Cathal Dalton of Lisney, who handled the letting, said that take-up of large distribution premises over the past three years had resulted in a shortage of good quality buildings.
€550,000 for industrial
Agent GVA Donal O Buachalla is looking for €550,000 for a modern industrial warehouse investment at Damastown Way, Damastown Industrial Park, Dublin 15. The facility is currently occupied by three tenants at an overall rent roll of €56,400.
JP McDonagh of the agents said investors would have an option to buy the 1,365sq m (14,695sq ft) building with the existing income streams and the long term prospect of capital appreciation.
Building costs on the rise
Building costs are continuing to recover, though at a remarkably slow pace.
Ireland's construction tender price index compiled by the Society of Chartered Surveyors shows that prices edged up by 1.8 per cent in the second half of 2012, bringing the overall recovery to 2.8 per cent for the year as a whole. Andrew Nugent said the increase in tender prices by almost 5 per cent over the past two years was due mainly to rising input costs such as building materials and energy costs.
