In a major boost for Dublin’s logistics real estate sector, Dublin Port Company’s MP2 Project has been awarded €73.8M in funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility for Transport programme. It is one of 134 projects backed by a total of €7B in EU investment for transport infrastructure.

The CEF Transport funding will be used for key elements of the MP2 Project, which will increase berth capacity to handle projected future demand for roll-on/roll-off freight and to accommodate larger vessels on direct services to Europe. This includes the construction of two interdependent berths at Terminal 5 at the eastern end of the North Port, designed to cater to the largest Ro-Ro vessels.

The EU funding and Dublin Port’s plans for the development of its site are expected to help underpin Dublin’s logistics market. In its outlook for 2024, Savills said the industrial and logistics vacancy rate was highest in Dublin’s north-east suburbs — 2.3% at the end of 2023, up from 1% a year earlier.

Looking ahead, Savills said there was potential for vacancy to rise slightly in 2024 given that 652K SF of new space is scheduled for vacant completion, the majority in the north-east. But the brokerage said the expansion of Dublin Port should bolster logistics requirements in the area. In addition, occupiers are favouring energy-efficient, newly built facilities over legacy logistics real estate stock.

In the second quarter, industrial investment remained scarce, according to the latest research from JLL. The opening quarter had a single transaction of €7.5M, followed by €53M invested across seven deals in Q2. However, low volumes are not a reflection of the sector, which remains in favour among institutional investors, but rather a lack of available opportunities, JLL said.

Dublin Port’s MP2 Project is one of the three core projects in its Masterplan 2040. The first was the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment project, which also received CEF support, with development works already advanced and capital investment of €1B planned over the next decade.

The MP2 Project focuses on the use of existing port lands in the north-eastern part of the estate. When complete, it will provide additional capacity for almost a third of the projected increases in Dublin Port’s Ro-Ro and lift-on/lift-off traffic to 2040.

In November, Dublin Port opened the €127M T4 Ro-Ro freight terminal, and work has commenced on the development of the nearly 110-acre Dublin Inland Port adjacent to Dublin Airport.

“Our Masterplan 2040 is designed to ensure continued capacity to deliver Ireland’s key infrastructure requirements and the MP2 Project is the second core strategic project from this plan,” Dublin Port CEO Barry O’Connell said in a statement. “Significantly, it includes providing infrastructure for the installation of shore-to-ship power — significantly reducing in-port emissions from berthed vessels.”

Port of Cork and three multicountry projects involving Irish partners were also selected to receive EU funding.