ONE OF Ireland’s largest property developers, the Cosgrave Property Group, is seeking in excess of £200 million for a key retail and office investment on London’s Oxford Street.
The property, Jubilee House at 197 to 213 Oxford Street and 215 to 219 Oxford Street, stands on a full one-acre island site and was bought four years ago for about £175 million.
Fergus Keane, of selling agent CB Richard Ellis, is handling the sale of the block which includes UK flagship stores operated by Next, River Island, Zara and New Look. Should the agents achieve the asking price, the investment will show an initial yield of 4.75 per cent, a figure that is expected to rise to 5.25 per cent when rent reviews are completed on the Zara and Next stores within the next two years. The property is currently producing a rent roll of almost £10 million.
The Cosgrave Group has strengthened the line-up of tenants since acquiring the investment but acknowledges there are still a number of asset management initiatives that can be taken including the long-term redevelopment of the site. However, the group has obviously decided that now is a good time to offload the investment to allow for “the redeployment of capital to development projects both in the UK and Ireland”. Since buying the London investment Cosgraves negotiated the surrender by Superdrug of its shop lease and relet the unit to River Island. It also acquired 215-219 Oxford Street to give it control of the entire island site.
Next is paying a rent of £2.622 million for a store of 3,251sq m (35,000sq ft); New Look has a rent bill of £1.9 million for a slightly smaller shop; River Island contributes £1.675 million for the use of 1,874sq m (20,180sq ft) while Zara rents 1,644sq m (17,700sq ft) at a cost of £1.5 million. About 20 per cent of the rent roll comes from offices where almost half the space is occupied by Christies, the fine art auctioneers.
The Cosgrave Group has bought and sold a number of UK property investment in the past five years. The group owns other property investment in the city, including some in Oxford Street.
Cosgraves are one of the few Dublin-based developers currently on site installing the infrastructure for a major new residential and retail scheme on the grounds of the former Dún Laoghaire golf club. It has full planning permission for 850 houses and a retail centre on 40 of the 80 acres on the edge of Dún Laoghaire.
