Developer Johnny Ronan's Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) and US fund Fortress Investment have stepped up plans to bring three of Dublin's foremost properties to the market.
Having reached agreement recently to offer their respective interests for sale, the parties are understood to have chosen Cushman & Wakefield, Knight Frank and CBRE to act as joint agents with Eastdil Secured for the projects, which together could command a figure in excess of €1.3 billion.
Cushman & Wakefield is set to be engaged to market a majority stake in Fibonacci Square in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. The scheme, which is fully let to Facebook on a 25-year lease commencing in 2022, forms part of the social media giant's wider European headquarter campus comprising 870,000sq ft of office space.
The news of Cushman's role as joint agent for the property comes just five weeks after the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) cleared the way for US private equity giant Blackstone to proceed with its €395 million purchase of a substantial, adjoining part of Facebook's new European headquarters.
Situated to the rear of Fibonacci Square, the 31,536sq m (339,456sq ft) office property was brought to the market by Cushman & Wakefield last September on behalf of the Serpentine consortium, a syndicate of private individuals and companies assembled by AIB Private Banking and Goodbody Stockbrokers.
The investment attracted significant global attention, with over €2.6 billion worth of capital vying for the asset. Clive Roche and Kevin Donohue of Cushman & Wakefield acted on behalf of the vendor while John Moran and Max Reilly of JLL acted for the purchaser.
Offering
A similar level of interest is expected to be shown now in the sale of Fibonacci Square and in the two other projects RGRE and Fortress will be offering to the market.
Knight Frank, for its part, is to be engaged as joint agent with Eastdil Secured to handle the disposal of a majority interest in global tech giant Salesforce's new European headquarters at Spencer Place in Dublin's north docklands. The proposed sale also includes a 204-bedroom hotel leased to the Dalata Hotel Group Plc on a "35-year term-certain" lease.
CBRE, meanwhile, is to be retained to work with Eastdil Secured on the sale of Waterfront South Central, the major residential and commercial scheme RGRE is in the process of delivering on a 4.6-acre site next to the 3Arena. Upon completion, the development is expected to comprise hundreds of apartments, 27,891sq m (300,126sq ft) of offices, along with numerous onsite amenities including cafes, creche facilities and restaurants.
