Grafton Street Retail and Office Portfolio to sell for €118 million

Royal London Asset Management is planning to offload eight prime retail properties and five offices in Dublin City Centre with an overall value believed to be in the region of €118 million. The portfolio includes the weekend 24 hour McDonalds on Grafton Street.

The sovereign portfolio currently produces an overall rent roll of €7,412,200. It would give the purchaser a 6% net return according to the selling agent CBRE. Royal London has been weighing up the option to sell the lucrative portfolio for some time. They had previously offered the same portfolio in 2009 and 2010 but withdrew it both times as a result of the property crash.

Investors will have the option to bid for the entire portfolio or separately. The sale offers serious scope across Dublin with properties on Grafton Street, Henry Street, Dawson Street, O’Connell Street and Westmoreland Street as well as Patrick Street, the main shopping avenue in Cork.

CBRE is inviting offers in excess of €83.3 million for the retail portfolio which is producing a rent roll of €4,514,686 and will show a net initial return of 5.18 per cent.

The selling price for the offices will be at least €34.7 million and with these investments rented at €2,897,514 the net return in this case will be 7.99 per cent.

The most valuable asset in the portfolio is the McDonalds which resides on 7-11 Grafton Street which bring in an overall rent of €1,820,000. The other main retail contributor is Office Shoes who pay €990,000, as well as The Body Shop at €165,000 and Swan Training at €65,000.

Some of the other properties include:

85-86 Grafton Street – Clarks Shoes and Pamela Scott

Hodges Figgis – 57-58 Dawson Street

Tower Records and Optica – Dawson Street

Motivational Weight Management Dr. Simon Collins – Dawson Street

Vodafone – 51-52 Henry Street.

02 – 5 GPO Buildings Henry Street

Clarkes Shoes – 43/44 – O’Connell Street.

11 Patrick Street

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/prime-office-and-retail-portfolio-for-118m-1.2200873