The prospect of securing strong and secure long-term income from a well-diversified tenant line-up should help to drive the sale of South Quarter Airside near Swords in north Dublin.
Located across from Airside Retail Park, the hugely-successful scheme owned by Irish Life, Iput, and its original developer, David Daly, the investment comprises two four-storey multilet buildings extending to an overall area of 8,424.83sq m (90,685sq ft) and 230 car-parking spaces on a site of 0.67 hectares (1.65 acres). While the property was arguably best known up until 2019 as the home of the Wright Venue night club, it has, since then, undergone a comprehensive redevelopment and transformation programme at the direction of its owners, the Michael J Wright Group.
Extending to 5,302.82sq m (57,079sq ft), Block A at South Quarter Airside now contains a newly developed remote broadcast and content production centre (RBC) and a mix of six retail/restaurant units.
The RBC, which measures 4,439sq m (47,791sq ft), was created to accommodate the content production requirements of Riot Games. Established in 2006 the California-headquartered egaming company is best known for its debut title League of Legends, the most-played PC game in the world.
The Swords RBC is set to be the first of up to three such facilities for Riot Games globally, and will have the capacity to produce six events simultaneously across production and audio rooms, bullpens and live stages. More than 120 jobs in broadcast engineering, production, control crew and event production will be added to staff the new centre. Riot Games employs 165 personnel at its EMEA headquarters in Dublin city centre across the areas of business operations, engineering, information security, publishing, live services and product development. The company will occupy Block A at South Quarter Airside on a new 15-year lease at a passing rent of €600,000 per annum stepping up to €650,000 in year three with a CPI-indexed rent review at year five. Other tenants in Block A include Hogs & Heifers, Pizza Dog, Indigo Pearl and O’Briens with a combined rent of €287,500 per annum. Block A offers the prospective purchaser a weighted average unexpired lease term (WAULT) to break of about nine years and over 14 years to expiry.
Leading retail park
Block B comprises a four-storey building extending to 3,122.01sq m (33,605sq ft) and is let in its entirety to Flyefit on three separate leases producing an income of €440,000 per annum and a WAULT to expiry of over 13 years. Flyefit is one of the largest gym operators in the country with 15 facilities in the capital and one in Cork city. The company is planning to invest an additional €10 million in four new gyms in Ireland this year.
South Quarter Airside is opposite the hugely successful Airside Retail Park and Airside Office and Motor Park. The location is home to one of the largest and leading retail parks in Ireland, as well as offices, leisure, motor showrooms, restaurants, cafes and a hotel. Adjoining retailers include B&Q, Homestore & More, EZ Living and Harvey Norman while other adjoining occupiers include Ryanair, VHI Swiftcare Clinic & The Premier Inn Hotel.
South Quarter Airside is minutes from Swords town centre, 2km from Dublin Airport and within a short drive of the M1, M50 and wider motorway network.
Blocks A and B are being offered for sale on behalf of the Michael J Wright Group by agent Colliers by way of separate lots at guide prices of €12.5 million and €4.75 million respectively. Alternatively, the entire property is available for sale at a guide price of €17.25 million, providing the purchaser with a blended net initial yield of 7 per cent.
Matthew Vanston of Colliers says: “South Quarter Airside presents investors with the opportunity to acquire a high-quality and well-diversified income-producing asset with long-term secure income and asset-management potential with a capital value significantly below replacement cost.”
