One of the key retail blocks in Dublin's busy Temple Bar, including the hugely successful Elephant & Castle restaurant, is to be offered for sale at €11.75 million. At that valuation, the next owner can bank on an income yield of 5.7 per cent.
Ardstone Capital, the Dublin-based private investment manager that bought the portfolio in summer 2014 for €8.26 million, will probably find a buyer among several local investment groups and a few institutions anxious to assemble city-centre portfolios. Ardstone purchased the Temple Bar property from Bank of Scotland (Ireland) in a considerably weaker market, when it was listed among a number of distressed assets held by Treasury Holdings before it was wound up.
Commercial agents Bannon will handle the sale of the portfolio, which brings in a overall annual rent of €700,000. There are 10 separate restaurants and other retail units at ground and basement level in the U-shaped block. An overall retail floor area of 1,598sq m (17,196sq ft) fronts on to Temple Bar, Bedford Row and Crampton Quay, beside the Ha'penny Bridge.
The overall weighted average unexpired lease term still has 7½ years to run, while more than 55 per cent of the rental income comes from three of the 10 traders: Elephant & Castle (€160,000), Gallagher’s Boxty House (€120,000) and Café Nero Ireland (€120,000). Not surprisingly, these three businesses face on to Temple Bar’s busiest street, which is crowded for much of the day.
Starbucks corner
Starbucks is the latest trader to rent part of the block, taking a high-profile corner unit at Crampton Quay at a rent of €75,000 per annum. In another tenant change, units 5 and 7 along the quays were amalgamated to accommodate Forbidden Planet, which pays €55,000 on a lease that runs until 2021.
David Carroll of Bannon, who is handling the sale, said Ardstone had invested a significant amount of capital into the asset and had completed six new leases since acquiring the property “This is now a very clean, low-risk, core asset. Its income is secure and is now reversionary, allowing for the potential to increase the income profile and yield in the medium term.”
The block, called Crampton Buildings, was developed by Dublin Artisan Dwellings in the 1890s and consists of a three-storey over-basement redbrick development with retail and restaurant use at ground and basement levels.
The original 54 apartments on the two upper floors, accessed from Asdill’s Row, were bought in 1998 by Dublin City Council for €3.5 million and redeveloped into 27 modern duplex homes.
