Iput, the leading Irish commercial real-estate investment and development group, has acquired a building adjacent to the Deloitte House property it bought on Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin two years ago, with a view to redeveloping the entire site to "bring new life" to the area off St Stephen's Green.
The company is understood to have paid about €20 million for the red-brick, five-storey 1970s building, called Garryard House at 25 Earlsfort Terrace, from the McGarrell Reilly Group. The property, extending to 16,000sq ft, is next door to Deloitte House, a 65,000sq ft building on the corner of Hatch Street, overlooking the National Concert Hall.
Iput acquired Deloitte House in 2018 for about €60 million in an asset-swap deal with the property’s then owners, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA).
While SSGA and the McGarrell Reilly Group had previously joined forced and secured planning permission for a new 190,000sq ft development on the corner plot, to more than double its current floor space, Iput plans to seek revised planning.
‘Carbon-neutral’ goal
"There's a real opportunity here to build something of a modern statement building that's as carbon-neutral as possible," said Iput chief executive Niall Gaffney. "Deloitte still have a lease on the main building that has five years to run. We have time to get this right."
Mr Gaffney said that Iput plans to engage with the National Concert Hall, which is embarking on a €78 million redevelopment; Dublin City Council; and the neighbouring Conrad Hotel, whose owner of two years, Archar Hotel Capital, secured planning permission this week to extend and refurbish the property.
“This area has the capacity to become a major cultural hub,” he said. “We’d like to have a porous ground floor design that would bring people and life into the space, which would have cultural, food and beverage outlets. We want to bring new life to the area.”
Property portfolio
Iput, whose office and logistics portfolio rose above €3 billion in value at the end of September for the first time, said two weeks ago that it was planning to cut carbon emissions from new developments and major refurbishment projects by 40 per cent under its plans to achieve net zero by the end of the decade.
The company, which has 5.2 million square feet of property assets, mainly in Dublin, also said that was targeting a 33 per cent reduction in the energy intensity of its managed portfolio and moving to 100 per cent renewable energy for occupier electricity by 2025.
It said it plans to use carbon-removal initiatives where the impact is verified to offset residual emissions that it cannot address directly. Offsets can include buying carbon credits from the likes of mature tree-planting projects or sophisticated carbon-removal technology.
