The Health Service Executive’s €50 million acquisition last year of US property giant Starwood’s remaining interests at Elmpark Green would appear to have renewed interest among investors for other properties at the Dublin 4 office and residential scheme. Having fielded a number of inquiries in relation to Block A and its adjoining annex, agent TWM is now bringing the property to the market on behalf of the Aviva Irish Commercial Property Fund, at a guide price of €18.5 million. That price represents a 34 per cent reduction on the €28 million which had had been sought when the Block A was offered for sale previously in the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Block A briefly comprises a modern seven-storey office building extending to a total net internal floor area of about 6,689sq m (72,000sq ft) with an adjoining smaller building (known as the Annex), extending to a gross area of 929sq m (10,000sq ft). There are 76 secure basement car-parking spaces included in the sale.
Willis Tower Watson Insurances Ltd has a lease on four floors (accounting for 60 per cent of the building) and is paying about €1.2 million in rent. There are two vacant floors extending to 2,694sq m (29,000sq ft), which can be accessed via individual entrances, which would suit a variety of users according to Michele Jackson of TWM. The entire property is currently generating total annual rental income of €1.32 million.
Developed originally in 2007 by Bernard McNamara, Jerry O’Reilly and the late David Courtney at a cost of €550 million, the wider Elmpark Green complex occupies a strong location on Merrion Road in Dublin 4 and sits within a short walk of St Vincent’s University Hospital and near UCD’s Belfield campus, Blackrock Clinic and Ballsbridge village.
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The majority of the campus is zoned Z6 (Employment and Enterprise) which allows for the potential conversion of the assets to medical, life science, hotel or living sector, subject to planning permission. The combination of the HSE’s purchase of Starwood’s remaining interests at Elmpark Green and the scheme’s close proximity to St Vincent’s hospital may see parties involved in the medical and life-sciences sectors express their interest in the sale of Block A.
