Although not a record for the area, the price paid for Carrisbrook House - equating to €92 million per acre - underlines the high value of land in Dublin 4, writes Jack Fagan
The jockeying for stakes in the multi-million euro redevelopment of the centre of Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, has moved a stage further with the sale of another office block to a consortium led by Bernard McNamara and Gerry O'Reilly.
The group has just paid €46 million for Carrisbrook House, an eight-storey over basement building across the road from Jurys Hotel on Pembroke Road which will be demolished to make way for a larger development.
The new owners are understood to have also acquired an adjoining filling station on the building's Northumberland Road side which will open the way for a considerably larger scheme, probably to include offices and apartments.
The McNamara/O'Reilly consortium, which frequently includes property adviser David Courtney, also has an interest in the area beside Jurys Hotel after paying €35.9 million for the State-owned Faculty Building on Shelbourne Road.
Separately, McNamara has quietly assembled a highly valuable redevelopment site directly opposite Jurys Hotel on Pembroke Road.
The consortium was advised by Savills Hamilton Osborne King on the purchase of Carrisbrook House while HT Meagher O'Reilly acted for owners Hibernian Assurance.
Carrisbrook House, a 38-year-old hexagonal building that never worked very well, was sold in a private tendering process that attracted mainly developers.
Apart from the fifth floor, which is rented to the Embassy of Israel, the block has been vacant for the best part of a year. Most of the €1.2 million rent roll is paid by the bank and, despite efforts by it to assign the lease to another occupier, there have been no takers because of the tired condition of the building internally and the fact that the three sub-leases have another 27 years to run.
The original lease was held by the State agency Forfás. AIB is expected to pay a reverse premium to be relieved of the cumbersome leases. The present rent works out at €377 per sq m (€35 per sq ft) and each of the floors has around 418sq m (4,500sq ft).
The Carrisbrook sale is unlikely to be the last in Ballsbridge this year as the State is apparently planning to sell Lansdowne House on the opposite side of the road. The nine-storey block is largely occupied by the Department of Finance which is due to move in July to Tullamore, Co Offaly, under the Government's decentralisation programme. The State bought Lansdowne House in 1999 for €29.8 million.
This week's sale of Carrisbrook once again underlines the exceptionally strong land values in the centre of Ballsbridge. Carrisbrook stands on a site of half an acre, equating to a value of €92 million per acre.
That is by no means a record value because last June property developer David Daly paid €25 million for Franklin House, a five-storey office block on 0.2 of an acre on Pembroke Road, reflecting a value of €133 million an acre.
The five-acre Jurys Hotel site bought by Sean Dunne of Mountbrook Homes now looks particularly good value at €50 million an acre. He later spent €60 million an acre acquiring the Berkeley Court Hotel, taking his total spend to €380 million. That works out at an average of just over €54 million an acre for what is undoubtedly the best part of the overall site.
Strong confidence in the value of Ballsbridge land was also shown by Maynooth developer Ray Grehan of Glenkerrin Homes when he paid €171.5 million for the former Veterinary College. That worked out at €83 million an acre for the 2.05-acre property.
Even after that the buying frenzy continued when the McNamara/O'Reilly/Courtney syndicate paid €35.9 million for the Faculty Building - equating to an impressive €95 million an acre. The sale of Lansdowne House may well break the record once again.
