M7 Real Estate pays €7m for Churchtown Business Park

Pan-European Investor’s latest deal brings overall Irish portfolio to 27 assets extending to 1.28 million sq ft

Churchtown Business Park in south Dublin
Churchtown Business Park in south Dublin

Pan-European investor and asset manager M7 Real Estate has added to its growing Irish property portfolio, paying just over €7 million for Churchtown Business Park in Dublin 14.

The completion of the deal brings M7′s holdings in the Republic to 27 assets, extending to just under 1,282,260sq ft, primarily in industrial and logistics space.

News of the transaction’s completion comes just four weeks on from M7′s €11 million acquisition of Swords Enterprise Park in north Dublin. Located on a prime site overlooking the M1 motorway and within close proximity to the M50, Dublin Airport and Dublin Port Tunnel, the 79,000sq ft scheme comprises 61 industrial/office units arranged over eight blocks. At the time of being offered to the market, the occupancy level at Swords Enterprise Park stood at 93 per cent with rents coming in below market levels, giving the purchaser scope to drive income through new lettings, lease renewals and rent reviews. Rental income from the asset was sitting at approximately €916,500 per annum when it went sale agreed in February, reflecting a net initial yield of 8.13 per cent.

In the case of Churchtown Business Park, M7 will have the benefit of €408,000 in annual rental income from a strong tenant line-up that includes Senator Windows, Tipperary Crystal, Skön, Danish Kitchen Design, Avista Medical, and Webshirts Ltd, trading as Louis Copeland. Unit 21 is currently vacant and once it is let, the total rent is expected to increase to more than €500,000 a year. The leases at the scheme have between three and 10 years remaining to expiry.

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Located in south Dublin, Churchtown Business Park extends to 41,260sq ft on a site of two acres, with unit sizes of 1,400sq ft-2,500sq ft with one unit of 7,645sq ft.

The sale reflects an initial net yield of 5.2 per cent which will increase upon the letting of the vacant unit to about 6.5 per cent.

Nicholas Corson of Finnegan Menton acted for the vendors while Gavin Butler of Savills acted for M7 Real Estate.

Ronald Quinlan

Ronald Quinlan

Ronald Quinlan is Property Editor of The Irish Times