Galway developer to acquire Dublin site for €100m

A Galway-based property developer has swooped to buy a prime commercial site in Dublin for €100 million, 25 per cent more than the guide price.

Lalco has agreed to pay €100 million for the FAAC Electronics site at the entrance to the old Sandyford Industrial Estate on Dublin's southside.

The site is across from the Central Park complex in Sandyford which houses, amongst other businesses, the headquarters of mobile network operator Vodafone.

It is also close to the M50 motorway and the Luas tramline terminal at Sandyford. The proposed extension of the Sandyford-Stephen's Green Luas tramline will pass the site.

James Meagher of HT Meagher O'Reilly did the deal. The property was advertised last week at €80 million.

However, Galway businessman and head of Lalco John Lally told The Irish Times at the weekend that his company was keen to get it, and offered €100 million.

"We think that's very good value," he said. "We're familiar with the market in that area as we've done a number of developments in the Sandyford-Leopardstown area.

"It's a very strong market," he said.

Mr Lally added that his company's calculations of the site's potential were still "conservative".

Lalco is planning a mixed commercial, residential and retail development for the site, and has already begun the process of hiring a design team.

As well as Mr Lally, the company's management includes operations head John Moran and finance chief Paul Higgins, a former director of Goodbody Corporate Finance.

Mr Higgins said that Lalco's current portfolio is worth €500- €600 million. It plans to increase this to €1.2 billion over the next year.

"We would expect to double that by 2007 on the basis of a number of other transactions that we are currently looking at," Mr Higgins said.

Lalco is building a new hotel on the site of the old Jury's Hotel in Limerick city.

Mr Lally said that Hilton will run the new 184 bedroom hotel when it is completed.

The company is developing 123 apartments and 109 berths (for boats) on the banks of the Shannon in Athlone.

In Dublin it is building 210 apartments in the Kilmainham area of the city.

The company won The Irish Times advertising award for the best new homes launch with this development.

It has also won a Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) award for one of its office block developments.

Closer to its most recent acquisition, Lalco is building a large apartment complex in Leopardstown, Dublin, on a site it bought from the Clyde Road partnership which was led by property tycoon Derek Quinlan.

Mr Lally trained as a quantity surveyor and set up Lalco in 1992 when he returned to Galway after spending five years in the UK.

In Britain he worked on the Canary Wharf docklands redevelopment in London in the late 1908s. At the time, the project was the biggest building site in Europe.

He began his own property development business at small level and has been growing it steadily over the last 14 years, he said.