One of the most valuable commercial properties presently on the market in Dublin may be providing one of the most accurate insights into the true health of the market in 2012. St Martin’s House at the intersection of Waterloo Road, Upper Baggot Street and Pembroke Road in central Dublin has been on the market with an asking price of €37.5m. It is a 76,000 sq ft 1960s refurbished office/retail block plus 156 car-parking spaces. The property is multi-tenanted and presently taking in €3.6m per annum. So on the face of it, a yield of just under 10% is suggested by the asking price. Savills is marketing the property and sales details are here.
Sources say that contracts had been issued at €28m, suggesting a 12.7% yield but even at this rate of return, the sale appears to have fallen through. The schedule of tenancies in the sales brochure suggest office rents of €40psf which is probably €15 psf above current market levels. Leases expire between 2016-2027. There is a mix of office tenants that includes reportedly-NAMAed Spain Courtney Doyle, about whom the brochure notes “Spain Courtney Doyle is a private limited company and have not published latest accounts for a credit score to be available.” As reported on here in April 2012, Spain Courtney Doyle now appear to have a London address, and one of the founders Bernard Doyle declared bankruptcy in the UK last month.
The building is understood to be owned by Treasury Holdings which is in the wars with NAMA at present, though it is not clear if this building is associated with any NAMA lending. [CORRECTION: 19th June, 2012. The building is in fact now wholly owned by Friends First Managed Pension Fund Limited and managed on its behalf by F&C Reit]
Savills hasn’t commented at time of writing.
UPDATE: 19th June, 2012. For the avoidance of any doubt, the selling agents advise that the leases/tenancies are fully performing.
UPDATE: 9th January, 2013. Jack Fagan reports in the Irish Times today that the property has now been sold to two unidentified German businessman, introduced by Davy, who paid €22.5m for the 75,000 sq ft property comprising retail and office space. Jack says this represents an initial yield of 13.26% but if the rent is still €3.6m, then I make the €22.5m price equivalent to a yield of 16% exactly.
NAMA Wine Lake 
perhaps F&C Reit Asset Management as opposed to TH.
Not in Opera,REO or on TH website,pg 2 Brochure on behalf of…
Checking F&C annual reports but rushing to meeting, apologies not sure its a TH deal.
@John G, many thanks, appears you are right that the property is now owned by Friends First Managed Pension Fund Limited and managed on its behalf by F&C Reit on its behalf. Correction to owner now being posted above.
actually MY apologies its only listed as ‘part share’ so you may be correct,will throw an ‘oul pencil” over it later.
“St Martins House, Waterloo Road, Dublin 4 Part Share”
Click to access Irish%20Property%20Fund%20Factsheet.pdf
@John G, the selling agents Savills have now confirmed that the property is now WHOLLY owned by Friends First so no current Treasury Holdings connection to the building.
@NWL thanks regarding update ‘performing’ now that’s a nice word,how does a holding over tenant ‘perform’ on a unicycle ?
Helga is on 48 a foot or 84,000 p.a. that’s heading south,perhaps a little reluctance to do a ‘market deal’ knock the crap out of the rest of the RR.
Basically,its a multi-tenant mixed use prime building with a development kicker,lapsed PP but perhaps some resi. play above the car park. Specifically,targeted for those under 35’s that are eager to get a foot on the bumpy road of property ownership!
Rental income significantly above market with weak tenant line up.
In Place Income-that’s all US funds pay for-its about protecting downside risk,upside is great but preservation of capital vital.
NOTE-this is a quick and dirty analysis for a blog,to present this to a committee we would have to review leases,physical inspection,Aged Receivables report,retail tenant sales info,health ratios,etc.etc.
Tenancy-comments;
CPW- has sub let the space that’s a negative,above mkt. rent exp. in 10 years.
but govt. guarantee-WTF were they doing renting,should be owner occupying one their own buildings, scandalous-now occupied by the Mental Health Commis-do they have walk in’s?
Truvo Irl. Ltd.- Golden Pages publishers/Eircom-nuff said-above mkt. exp. 10yrs-last time you used yellow pages !
NRA-exp. ’16 above mkt. why is the NRA in this quality and location,can they not find something a little cheaper beside a motorway-assume they relocate,paying over a 1MILLION in rent no wonder the country is knackered,they can occupy same amount of space for half the rent,disgrace to the taxpayer.
SCD-will the new owner accept sterling.
Xtra-Vision-in a death spiral-Netflix,hulu, no one except lower demographic people ‘rent’ movies from stores anymore,they are road kill.
Summary:CPW-no longer using space,NRA SHOULD relocate or renegotiate dramatically,Truvo-not crazy about their business prospects,SCD-no point in gratuitous kick ,Xtra-Vision-try No Vision they wont last.
long term great quality asset,offering tremendous upside over purchase price to well capitalized sophisticated fund,think of the FEE’s,and trust me they do.
will do part 2 later All Cash and Leveraged,do agents in Ireland not release an Argus run or at least excel ss,where are the lease abstracts ?
Weird timing to sell, redemption window opening or swamped with requests,pity they cant offer that 75% NAMA funding,tough deal to finance,really gives NAMA an unfair advantage in these situations.
“Friends First” or F&C Fund owns a piece of this,total size of fund 95 million with assets of19,a mix of classes and partial ownership positions,no info on which entity or other partners have/had ownership-link above.
Spain Courtney Doyle-now based in London-were the go to guys for FF,advising and working together on numerous transactions.Probably the most infamous was the sale leaseback of various Superquinn sites/stores.
Courtney and Doyle were part of the group that LBO’d Superquinn,but one assumes they had laid off the sites/stores to Friends First,after all is that not what friends are for !
“Superquinn, the grocer which was purchased by Select Retail Holdings in 2005, has raised €142.5m on a sale and leaseback deal on six stores that will fund further expansion. The company said yesterday that Friends First F&C has agreed an investment of €142.5m in the Superquinn property portfolio.”
http://netleasenews.blogspot.com/2007/05/superquinn-completes-142-million-sale.html
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/superquinn-sites-fund-in-talks-on-debt-restructuring-2035781.html
‘Friends First’ how aptly named puked some these deals into “Corinthian Irish Retail Portfolio (The “Fund”)” which is a complete car crash,but look at the FEE’S!
Click to access Corinthian.pdf
Apologies,to NWL a little off topic the reason for mentioning this is that some of the x ‘Select Retail’ chaps are now marketing the 7,000 sq.ft. ‘occupied’ by Spain Courtney Doyle,perhaps its a ‘back office’ as their main center of “business” is London.While Savills,claims that the tenants are current,realistically how long can Spain Courtney Doyle continue paying 375,000 p.a. on space they are trying to sub-let,while based in London.
http://www.xaviermccaffrey.com/property/view/279/
No sane sophisticated purchaser will attribute ANY value to the lease btw. SCD and FF,it may as well be vacant,talk about biting the hand that fed you,or poetic justice.In underwriting this we would attribute NO value to that lease.