CBRE has begun the sales process for Hewlett Packard's 79-hectare technology and manufacturing campus on the outskirts of Dublin.
The Liffey Park technology campus is located in the town of Leixlip, County Kildare, about 20 kilometres from the Irish capital.
Over €3.8 mln of gross rent is currently being generated from short to medium term leases for about 35% of the building area. 'This creates tremendous potential and scope to increase the rent roll going forward from leasing of currently vacant accommodation,' CBRE said.
While CBRE did not disclose a guide price for the property, market sources expect it could command as much as €50 mln.
Separately, CBRE and Savills have begun the sales process for Carton House, a luxury spa and golf hotel in Maynooth, Country Kildare. The indication price for the hotel is €60 mln.
Liffey Park
The Liffey Park complex was developed for Hewlett Packard (HP), the US computing and software giant, in the mid 1990s.
A major restructuring of the group has led to HP scaling back its operations at the campus. HP split its businesses between HP Inc, focusing on personal computers and printers, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, covering software and cloud computing, in 2015. HP Inc announced earlier this year it was closing the printer operations at Liffey Park and cutting 500 jobs there. The other part of the group has not scaled back its operations in the complex.
CBRE emphasised that the campus will continue to house a number of occupiers over the short to medium term, in about one third of the accommodation.
Willie Norse, executive director at CBRE Dublin, commented: 'This is a unique opportunity to acquire an exceptional manufacturing campus with significant existing buildings and major infrastructure in place. It will represent one of the largest industrial and indeed overall property disposals in Ireland in recent years.
'This premier high-tech manufacturing complex represents an economic opportunity for large scale end-users to secure a commercial industrial/manufacturing facility at a fraction of reinstatement value, or alternatively for investors who would seek to lease out the entire campus, thereby generating a very significant rent roll. Given that Ireland is the fastest growing economy in Europe and a gateway to European and global markets, we expect this opportunity to have very strong appeal to both global investors and end-users.'
Nine buildings
The campus comprises nine main buildings of which six are dedicated to high quality manufacturing, clean room, warehouse and office use. The remaining buildings are used for ancillary and backup functions such as energy and canteen services.
The site also benefits from 11,150 m2 of cleanrooms located within Building 7 of the campus. The overall facility, which extends to a gross floor area of 136,000 m2, is located on a serviced site of 79 hectares.
CBRE said that the site configuration allowed for an estimated 28 hectares of undeveloped land which offers potential for additional development of buildings, subject to planning permission.
The site is located off the M4 motorway which links Dublin to Galway and the west of Ireland. Dublin city centre is located 21 km to the east, Dublin Port is 33 km to the east and Dublin Airport is located 27 km to the north-east.
