Clever sale of Cleve Quarter office block
There’s some 34,000 sq ft in the third generation Cleve Quarter, and the sale includes the vast bulk of the c 40,000 sq ft five-storey building, where a half-floor was sold to an investor several years ago.
The sale price of €43.50 a square foot equates to just a fraction of build or replacement costs, says agent Edward Hanafin of Lisney, who quotes a selling price of €1.5 million for the building.
Developed by a private individual who owned the site for a long period, Cleve Quarter is 1.5km east of Cork city centre, on the southern side of Monahan Road, near Phoenix House, and Tellenganna, a modern 55,000 sq ft office block occupied by Citco Fund Services.
Cork City Council has designed Monahan Road and Centre Park Road as some of the key sections for current and future ‘docklands’ redevelopment, and the Doyle Group earlier this year put a 3.1 acre development site up for sale with a €4m price tag, close to the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh GAA stadium and Marina Park campus on the former Showgrounds site.
Mr Hanafin describes the in-transition setting as “an established commercial location”.
Phoenix House, with some 100,000 sq ft of offices developed in the mid 2000s at a cost of €20m, last year secured Regus as a tenant taking 13,000 sq ft, and rents there were quoted in 2016 at €12 psf.
Largely vacant since it was developed over a decade ago, Cleve Quarter is a detached, five-storey office building over an undercroft/basement car park with central services/lifts core. Each sub-divided floor is approx 8,500 sq ft, finished to shell standard, and there are 30 car spaces in the basement and 55 surface car spaces to the rear.
It adjoins a large Mainport site and offices; to the south are lands off Cleve Hill (just west of Lindville,) where developers Citidwell are expected to go on site shortly to commence an upmarket residential scheme of c 30 new homes, accessed off the Blackrock Road.
The sale of Cleve Quarter is on the instructions of receiver Gearoid Costelloe, Grant Thornton, and “the property will appeal to investors and, possibly to an owner-occupier with a use for all or part of the building”, says Mr Hanafin, adding that suburban rents of c €15 psf can be expected.
“Cleve Quarter represents a superb asset management opportunity to acquire a well-located office building, with parking, for a fraction of construction cost,” he says.
