PwC Building Comes To Market With €200M Price Tag in Bellwether Deal For Dublin
Professional services company PwC’s Dublin headquarters is set to be sold with a guide price in the region of €200M, the Sunday Independent has reported.
The 227K SF One Spencer Dock will be brought to the market jointly by agents JLL and CBRE on behalf of its owner, a Middle Eastern investor represented by AGC Equity Partners.
PwC signed a 25-year lease at circa €12M annually in April 2007 that expires in April 2032, and the building has the capacity to accommodate over 2,000 staff.
The owner had previously issued a request for proposal to a number of commercial real estate agents in May 2021, when it considered offering the building for sale with a guide price of around €265M.
In August 2016, the current owner bought the Nama-controlled property for €242M through London-based AGC Equity Partners via joint receivers Luke Charleton and David Hughes of EY, while agents Savills and CBRE brokered the deal on behalf of both the joint receivers and Davy Real Estate.
One Spencer Dock was developed in 2007 by Treasury Holdings, a company led by property developers Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett before the business’ closure. The building comprises three interconnected, nine-storey office buildings alongside the Convention Centre Dublin.
Despite the large markdown on its purchase price and its fall from its peak value, the fact that a significant office block is coming to market could help kickstart a quiet commercial real estate transactional market, with Dublin vacancy rates at the end of last year running at 13.6%, up 0.4% over the previous year.
Vacancy rates are expected to peak slightly above this figure this year before falling as new space to market drops off because of a very slow development pipeline.
By district, Dublin 2 had the highest vacancy rate in the capital at 18.7%, according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, prepared by EY. Of the 80 towns assessed throughout Ireland, Ballybofey in County Donegal had the highest vacancy rate at 36.4%.
