Hibernia REIT has exchanged contracts to acquire Marine House in Dublin’s central business district for €26.5m.
Marine House is a 1970s office building totalling 3,809m2 (41,000ft2) arranged over six floors above a double basement with 81 underground car parking spaces. The property, which looks onto the Grand Canal, is part of Clanwilliam Court which comprises seven separate blocks (six office, one residential) and is a short walk from Merrion Square and Grand Canal Dock railway station in central Dublin.
The building is fully let to a host of occupiers, including accountancy firm Crowe Horwath and WK Nowlan Property, generating total current rent of €1.2m per year. The weighted average periods to break and rent review are three and three and a half years, respectively, with 20% of the office space subject to review or expiry in the next 18 months: the average unexpired lease term is five years.
The purchase price equates to a capital value of €640/ft² for the office accommodation and the net initial yield is 4.3%.
Kevin Nowlan, chief executive officer of Hibernia, said: “We are delighted to have acquired Marine House, which we know well as former occupiers. The building is an exciting addition to our longer term pipeline of development assets in prime locations in central Dublin, with possibilities to redevelop alone or as part of a wider redevelopment of Clanwilliam Court. With low average rents of €23/ft² in the building, there are opportunities in the near term to enhance the income through light refurbishment.”
Hibernia have made a number of acquisitions in the Dublin area in recent months including Central Quay, a modern office building located between Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Hanover Quay in the South Docks area for €51.3m, and direct ownership of Hardwicke House and Montague House for €41.8m.
