The new commercial property investment season has moved off to a swift start with two occupied office properties for sale, one in Blackrock, Co Dublin, and the other in Limerick city. Jones Lang LaSalle is quoting in excess of £8 million for the Blackrock property, a four-storey block occupied by one of Ireland's leading indigenous technology companies. That price would equate to a yield of about 5.5 per cent.
The 13,972 sq ft building is Block C, Maretimo Court, Temple Road, Blackrock - just off the Blackrock bypass - and is producing £481,160, which breaks down at £30 per sq ft. It is being sold for the property developer Ken Rohan and is occupied by Trinity Technology Group, the provider of specialist corporate solutions, under a 35-year lease from 1990 with five-yearly rent reviews. The next review is due in 2005.
Trinity, a "new economy" Irish company, recently took over the lease on the building from Oracle to locate its European headquarters there, and also plans to establish Ireland's first eBusiness Integration Centre (eBIC) in the Blackrock premises.
Trinity has strategic alliances with some of the major names in technology including Oracle, Computer Associates, Sun Microsystems and Compaq. It is projecting a turnover in excess of £35 million this year. Founded in 1990, it currently employs more than 70 people. Trinity will be carrying out a major refit of the premises before moving in. The building has 31 car-parking spaces and is within easy walking distance of the DART, two shopping centres and the amenities of Blackrock. The sale is being handled by Alan Bradley of Jones Lang LaSalle.
In Limerick, an eight storey riverside office building which is almost 30 years old is expected to make over £6 million when it is sold by private treaty through joint agents Lisney and Rooneys. It stands on a site of 0.7 of an acre.
The building is currently producing a rent roll of £197,844, though the leases held by the Office of Public Works and Eircom are due to run out over the next four years. The OPW's 35-year leases of the ground, first, second and third floors are all due to run out by the middle of 2002; though Eircom's leases of three other floors run out in 2003 and 2004, the company has already moved out. The top floor is also vacant.
The agents suggest that whoever buys the block will probably negotiate for vacant possession and then upgrade the building. Because it is located in a tax designated area, owners can avail of 100 per cent capital allowances once the work is completed before December, 2002. Investors will be able to claim allowances not only against rental income, but also non-rental income up to a maximum of £25,000 per year.
