French investor Corum Asset Management has increased its overall investment in the Republic and Northern Ireland to more than €300 million with the acquisition for €14.725 million of Dromore House, a prime regional office property in Shannon, Co Clare.
Located in the East Park business campus, the subject property comprises about 80,000sq ft of office accommodation, which has been actively managed and upgraded since its acquisition by Clyde Real Estate, the company set up by former Dragons’ Den investor Seán Gallagher and telecoms entrepreneur Colm Piercy.
Dromore House has a strong tenant line-up that includes Intel, Digital River and Wipro. The annual income is considered reversionary with Intel accounting for 76 per cent of the total. Intel uses the property as its main research and development facility outside of its Leixlip campus near Dublin.
Brian Edwards of CBRE handled the sale, while Matthew Vanston of Colliers acted on behalf of the purchasers.
Commenting on the completion of the transaction, Conor McIntyre, investment director with Clyde Real Estate, said: “Dromore House has delivered strong returns to Clyde through active asset management that has included new tenant lease-up together with the regearing of existing leases. The property offers strong reversionary potential for the purchaser as well as upside from leasing up the remaining vacant space.”
“2022 has been a transformational year for Clyde Real Estate. We continue to generate market-leading returns from our focus on value-added real estate and remain very active in enhancing our remaining portfolio assets as well as identifying new value-add and development opportunities in Ireland and the UK across office and industrial, mission-critical facilities, retail and data-centre asset classes.” he added.
News of Corum Asset Management’s purchase of Dromore House on behalf of its fund, Corum XL, comes just over a year on from its €60 million deal for the NSQ1 building at O’Callaghan Properties’ Navigation Square development in Cork city’s docklands.
Prior to that, the French investor’s last purchase in Ireland saw it acquire Blackthorn House in Sandyford in south Dublin from Irish Life for about €18 million in May 2020.
In January 2020 it paid €30.5 million and €29.5 million respectively to acquire One Kilmainham Square in Dublin 8 and Classon House in Dublin 14 from a joint-venture partnership led by Avestus Capital Partners.
In 2019, Corum acquired the Tesco supermarket in Gorey, Co Wexford, and South Point at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, for €21 million and €12.7 million respectively.
A year earlier it paid more than £16.4 million (€18.8 million) for 40-46 Donegall Place in Belfast city centre. The sale of the property, which is occupied by Next and Eason, represented the company’s first investment in the Northern Ireland market.
In 2017, Corum paid €14 million to add the Joyce’s Court retail and office complex off Talbot Street, Dublin, to its then €80 million portfolio of Irish assets. The company had previously acquired Voxpro Office Park in Cork and another office complex in Galway as well as Harvey Norman’s retail store in Cork.
