Irish Life is to pre-fund a €125 mln office development, backed by Oaktree Capital Management and pre-leased to accounting firm Grant Thornton, in Dublin's docklands.
The 12,700 m2 building is being developed at 13-18 City Quay by City Development Fund, a sub-fund of Targeted Investment Opportunities ICAV (TIO).
TIO is an umbrella fund made up of Oaktree-managed sub-funds. Irish bad bank Nama is a minority shareholder in City Development Fund.
The office development is part of The Reveal Developments, a partnership between Oaktree and Irish family-owned Bennet Construction. The pair say the goal of The Reveal Developments is 'to highlight Dublin's creativity, confidence, intelligence and connections to global business'.
Irish Life, a Dublin-based insurance and pension provider, will take full ownership of 13-18 City Quay on completion in May 2018. Grant Thornton will base 350 staff in the building. This pre-funding transaction follows Irish Life's recent €58 mln purchase of Velasco on Grand Canal Street, another Dublin office building due for completion in the early part of 2017.
TIO was represented by Fergus O’Farrell of Savills Ireland, while Johnny Horgan of CBRE acted on behalf of Irish Life.
Justin Bickle, chairman of TIO and managing director of Oaktree, commented: 'The pre-let to Grant Thornton and pre-funding agreement with Irish Life is further evidence of the strong fundamentals in the Dublin office market. We have invested significant capital in Irish real estate in the past five years and continue to believe in Ireland's economic growth prospects and job creation opportunities.'
Docklands developments
The City Development Fund is active in the development of a number of major commercial and residential developments in Dublin's docklands. Last year, it pre-let, constructed and sold 8 Hanover Quay – now the flagship European headquarters of AirBnB. This was the first major pre-letting completed in the South Docks area during the current development cycle, with the Grant Thornton pre-letting on City Quay the second.
Other TIO projects include the development of 5 Hanover Quay – a 172,000 m2 office building due for completion in Q1 2018 – and 76 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, comprising a 10,760 m2 office building and 72 luxury apartments.
