Having failed to find a buyer at a guide price of €12.5 million in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Boole House at Beech Hill Office Park in Clonskeagh has now changed hands twice in quick succession since being offered for sale last summer at the reduced price of €10 million.
In the first instance, Meath-based businessman Eamon Waters is understood to have paid the Layden Group about €9 million to secure ownership of the Dublin 14 office block.
And while the purchase presented Mr Waters with what the joint selling agents Knight Frank and JLL had described as a “value-add opportunity”, the founder of the State’s largest waste company, Beauparc Utilities, opted recently to sell the 42,000sq ft building on to property investment firm, Eagle Street Partners Group, for €10.5 million.
While the price paid by Eagle Street would suggest that Mr Waters received a significant uplift on his investment, his payment of standard purchaser’s costs of 9.96 per cent would have left with him a negligible return. The Irish Times understands that Eagle Street has now secured the HSE as tenants for Boole House on a 12-month temporary lease and is in the process of formulating a plan for the property and its adjacent development site. Before offering Boole House for sale, the Layden Group had secured planning permission from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for a five-storey, 34,250sq ft (3,185sq m) office development on the site.
Boole House itself comprises efficient floor plates of 14,000sq ft that could be further subdivided, if required. There are also 89 car parking spaces available with the building and ample space for Eagle Street to add new tenant amenities such as showers, changing rooms, secure bicycle stores, etc.
Beech Hill Office Campus is an established office park in south Dublin. The immediate area is home to the main campus of UCD at Belfield and to leading corporate occupiers such as Circle K, Paddy Power, Smurfit Kappa, Pinergy and KSN. Boole House, meanwhile, had until recent years served as the Irish headquarters of global telecommunications company, Ericsson.
The news of Eagle Street Partners’ acquisition of Boole House comes just over five months on from its €63 million purchase of a 5.2-acre residential site in Dublin’s north docklands from Irish homebuilder Glenveagh Properties. The site at 1-4 East Road comes with full planning permission for 554 apartments distributed across nine buildings ranging in height from three to 15 storeys, along with commercial/enterprise space, three retail units, a foodhub/cafe/exhibition space, a creche and men’s shed. Just nine months earlier, Eagle Street had paid Glenveagh €78.5 million for the neighbouring 4.6-acre residential and hotel site at Castleforbes Business Park. Those lands have scope for the delivery of 702 residential units and a 219-room hotel.
