John Boyle, owner of Boylesports, snapped up one of the top lots at this week’s Allsop property auction when he purchased the sports chain’s Dundalk headquarters for €1.875 million. The modern 1,610sq m (17,333sq ft) premises at Finnabair Business and Technology Park which had a reserve of €1.45 million, will come as something of a bargain for Boylesports as it is currently tied into a 15-year lease on the building until 2018 with an annual rent bill of €250,000, exclusive of VAT and rates.
Boylesports has moved into acquisitive mode recently and is in various stages of negotiation to buy 10 of its bookmaking shops from landlords around the country. A spokesman for Boylesports stressed that the company is not diversifying into property speculation, but it believes these buys “make financial sense” in the current market.
Elsewhere at Tuesday’s auction, four very similar two-bed mid-terrace properties on the same road in Dublin 8 each sold for very different prices. Numbers 4, 18, 38 and 39 Hammond Street in Dublin 8 sold for €300,000, €284,000, €162,500, €180,000 respectively. The four were part of a portfolio sold by KPMG and had reserves of between €150,000 and €165,000.
The last lot of the day also told an interesting story as the remaining two dozen or so people in the room bid against each other for a two-bed penthouse apartment in Dublin 1. It finally sold for €257,000 on a reserve price of €150,000.
However, because the current tenant did not grant access to view the apartment, neither the buyer nor the bidders had ever set foot in the property at Wellington Court on Wellington Street Upper.
