Fund sizes up Garda HQ

Hibernia REIT is to lodge a planning application that could see the Garda regional headquarters, on Dublin’s Harcourt Square, replaced by up to 300,000sq ft of prime office development.

The publicly-quoted property investment fund yesterday announced the €70m ‘off-market’ purchase of the 1.9 acre site, which is currently let to the Office of Public Works and is used as the Dublin regional headquarters of the Garda Siochána, covering 116,848sq ft of office space.

The deal is Hibernia’s second largest and 14th since its initial public offering at the end of 2013. The company will have invested €506m (with a further €43m committed) upon completion of this deal.