Having paid €5 million in 2021 to acquire the former Atlantic Mills factory in Longford, the Mashup Group has engaged industrial property specialist agent Harvey to find a buyer for the facility and the 78 acres on which it sits. The Mashup Group, which is best known for its ownership of the online schoolbooks.ie business, is looking to secure €7.25 million for the asset, which is being sold with the benefit of freehold title, and planning in place for a range of uses including industrial and logistics, a solar farm, a battery farm and recycling.
The guide price equates to €18.50 per square foot after allowing €10,000 per acre on the 60 acres that would be surplus to standard site densities, according to Kevin McHugh of Harvey. The prospective purchaser will have the option of buying the property directly and paying 7.5 per cent stamp duty or buying the company that holds the asset and paying 1 per cent stamp duty on the transfer of shares.
The property is just off the N5 outside the town of Termonbarry, 10 minutes’ drive from Longford town centre and 80 minutes’ drive from the M50 motorway. The site is bounded by the river Shannon for 730m.
The building, originally a jeans factory, has a floor area of 33,445sq m (360,000sq ft), with clear internal height of 7.7m-10.5m. Those heights lend themselves to a wide variety of industrial uses and warehousing, with planning permission in place for both.
The main building is split into five large halls with a link to a single-storey office block. Externally, there is car parking for about 300 cars plus yard and marshalling areas. Loading access is available via four dock levellers and nine level-access doors.
The selling agent says the property would be suitable for prefabrication, logistics, engineering, green energy, recycling or possibly a data centre, subject to the necessary planning permission and power where required.
The property is in an area that qualifies for €169 million of Just Transition grants. Planning permission has been obtained for a 4MW solar farm on 19 acres of the site, a 40MW battery farm on 1.3 acres and for recycling in part of the building. The property has a water-treatment plant and storage tanks on site.
While the facility had been the subject of proposals for the development of a multimillion-euro waste-to-hydrogen facility, those plans were abandoned before the Mashup Group’s decision to dispose of the property.
Kevin McHugh of Harvey says: “It is rare that an industrial building of this height and scale comes to the market, especially one on such a large site. The diverse potential of this property is clear with planning permission in place for industrial and logistics, a solar farm, a battery farm and recycling.”
