NAMA developer’s provincial commercial portfolio comes onto the market

The Roscommon People last week reported that a number of “prime investment properties” in Athlone (County Westmeath) and Ballinasloe and Tuam (both County Galway) were coming on to the market. Today the Irish Independent does some yield analysis on last week’s report and writes that “the properties are all part of a portfolio owned by a west of Ireland developer who is working with NAMA to pay down his loans”.

There are four properties, all available through Roscommon agents, Property Partners Earley Limited

(1) Dunlo Centre,  Dunlo Street, Ballinasloe. 8,500 sq ft with the ground floor rented to Ladbrokes bookmakers.

(2) Unit 2, Custom Pier, Athlone, 2,500 sq ft rented to La Strada restaurant (not part of Richard Caring’s Strada chain)

(3) IDA Business Park,Dunmore Road, Tuam, five premises currently rented to the IDA

(4) A pharmacy in the Auburn Retail Park in Athlone (no details available from Earley’s website)

The developer of the Dunlo Centre in 2006/7 is recorded as Gerry Sweeney, Declan Sweeney and Paddy Sweeney, Mother Hubbards, Bride Street, Loughrea, Co. Gaway. Paddy Sweeney has been associated with Tom Considine and Gerry Prendergast who, all together, have been reported to be in the NAMA Top-20. They are most associated with the development of theMillenniumPark in Osbertstown in Kildare.

You’ll find rent details for the above properties in the Roscommon People report. The Independent has some yield analysis suggesting yields in the 10-16% range.

What is not mentioned anywhere is the potential impact of what seem like imminent changes to commercial rent legislation with the retrospective abolition of Upward Only Rent Review terms. The latest news on the controversial piece of legislation is probably from the horse’s mouth yesterday when Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter told the Oireachtas that the Government has committed to introduce the Landlord and Tenant (Business Leases Review) Bill before Christmas 2011 and he indicated it would be published in “late October/November”, that he, Minister Shatter was liaising closely with the Attorney General on the legislation which may need to be approved by the Troika. The Minister indicated that there were still technical issues, particularly in the area of property rights. He said the Cabinet had been informed of progress and that discussions had taken place with interested parties.

It is not clear if any of the properties above will be affected by the imminent changes though there is reference to pre-February 2010 lease agreements which might indicate that they will be affected (February 2010 was the date from which UORR terms in new leases were banned – there was no change to historical agreements which are the subject of the imminent legislation)

Advertisement