Entire business campus at Swords on market for €50m – The Business Post

The 19-acre site, which could also be used for residential subject to planning permission, is near a planned Metro station, has upgraded its green credentials and is intensively landscaped for biodiversity.

Swords Business Campus in Fingal in north Dublin is on sale for €50 million. The ten-acre site has potential for residential development
Tina-Marie O’Neill

TWM has launched the sale of Swords Business Campus on Balheary Road, Swords Co Dublin for which the agent is guiding €50 million.

The established office and healthcare campus is a high-profile employment hub in north Dublin, covering some 7.75 hectares (about 19 acres). It is 1km from the M1 and five minutes’ drive from Dublin Airport.

The office buildings on the campus extend to 27,624 square metres (using International Property Measurement Standards 2, previously referred to as gross internal area) and 25,449 square metres (IPMS-3, or previously net internal area).

The current owners have upgraded and leased various buildings on site, improving BER ratings, and recently implemented a sustainability plan at the campus, which included the introduction of LED lighting around the campus, EV charging stations and a Go-Car rental station. In addition, the owners adopted a biodiversity driven landscape plan, introducing swift boxes, beehives, bug hotels, a pond and wetlands.

The campus is now a focus for life sciences and healthcare as well as traditional office occupiers.

The healthcare and life sciences sectors now account for over 21 per cent of the income and this is growing in line with increased investment in Ireland by multinationals in this sector. The state accounts for 42 per cent of current income.

Set in an intensively landscaped environment, the campus buildings have exceptional floor-to-ceiling heights, creating mezzanine potential, excellent natural light and 804 surface car parking spaces, a generous ratio of 1:34 square metres. There is also planning permission for an additional 48 spaces.

KMD Architecture undertook a feasibility study for major residential development on the site to the north end of the campus, adjacent to the planned Metro station and using a separate access.

The study shows four nine-storey blocks yielding a total of 372 apartments above a semi basement car park, subject to planning and zoning.

Swords Business Campus is located in an area zoned ‘ME’ in the Fingal Development Plan, 2017-2023, for which the objective is to facilitate opportunities for high-density, mixed-use employment generating activity and commercial development within the Metro Economic Corridor.

The site is also located within Master plan area MP8.B, referred to as Estuary Central. The campus is within ten minutes’ walk from the planned Estuary Metro stop.

Swords Business Campus currently produces a passing income of about €3.2 million (ongoing demand may alter income) representing a net initial yield of 5.81 per cent with a future revisionary yield of 8.3 per cent based on leasing vacant units only. The weighted average unexpired term is 7.66 years to lease expiry and 4.56 to lease breaks.

A price at this level equates to approximately €168 per square foot, (or €1,808 per square metre), a level significantly below the replacement cost, particularly in a market of ever increasing construction costs. There are currently ongoing leasing discussions and rent review negotiations.

TWM expects good interest in the campus as it offers “excellent asset management potential for the new owners though additional leasing of vacant accommodation, investing further in sustainability and securing permission for the development land in line with the arrival of the Metro in 2032”.

For more information and to review the data room contact Michele Jackson, Patricia Ward or Russell Cleere at TWM at 01-6766566.

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