Howard Holdings splashes €400m on deals in Cork and London

IRISH company Howard Holdings has just splashed out €400 million in site and investment deals in Cork and in Croydon, the latter a €370m investment purchase.

In Cork, a €30m-plus land deal with Ford Motor Company has put the international developers into the driving seat as potential masterplan developers in Cork city’s future docklands campus.

It follows a recent €10m deal for a mere half-acre site by Cork City Hall.

It now has ‘bookending’ sites in the docklands/Marina area of the city, and will now initiate discussions with the GAA and Munster Showgrounds Society/City Council to stimulate large-scale redevelopment.

The confirmation of the docklands deal with Fords, against competition from four other developers, comes as it has secured a €370m deal with joint investors Anglo Irish Insurances for the 1980s Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon, south London - the eighth-biggest shopping centre in Britain.

Howards have three other development schemes in Croydon, worth €120m. On 12 acres, the Whitgift centre has over one million sq ft of retail space, but may be redeveloped to twice that size.

Howard Holdings currently has €2 billion worth of property development in train in Ireland, Britain, Spain, eastern Europe and South Africa.

The company has a further €1.25bn in asset management, according to chairman Frank Gormley.

It has long-stated itsambition to lead Cork’s dockland roll-out, and the deal to pay over €30m for the Fords site, sold via Lisneys, put them in poll position to deliver on that aim.

And, it has finally acquired a half-acre warehouse site by City Hall, sold by Doyles for about €10m, across the River Lee from their competed €100m City Quarter development.

Company director Greg Coughlan last night reiterated Howard’s ambition to be the masterplan developer in the docklands campus.

“I can’t see us developing the Ford site in isolation, after all there’s a €400m infrastructural investment needed to progress the whole area.

“It needs one zoning, so everyone is clear what’s going to take place.

“We’ve taken the initiative with this deal, and intend now to talk to the GAA next door in Páirc Uí Chaiomh and to the City Council about the Showgrounds,” said Mr Coughlan.

Howards has also been in negotiations with fuel merchants Tedcastles, which owns a valuable 20-acre site closer to the river, but no deal has yet been reached there.