Burlington Real Estate closing in on €29m deal for Carrisbrook House

Burlington Real Estate is closing in on the purchase of Carrisbrook House in Ballsbridge for around €29 million.

The company, which is headed up by former Treasury Holdings chief executive John Bruder, is understood to have secured the property in the face of competing offers from a number of parties. US real estate firm Hines, Johnny Ronan's Ronan Group Real Estate, Pat Crean's Marlet Property Group, David Kennan's KC Capital, and international property developer Osborne + Co are among those said to have vied for the landmark building.

Located at the junction of Pembroke Road and Northumberland Road and across the road from the site of the former Jurys Hotel, Carrisbrook House served as the home of the Israeli embassy in Ireland up until its relocation to nearby Shelbourne Road in 2019.

While Carrisbrook's current owners, Colony Capital, acquired the property in partnership with UK developer U+I for €23.5 million in 2018, or just over half the €46 million developers Bernard McNamara, Jeremiah O'Reilly and the late David Courtney had paid for it in 2007, they struggled to find occupiers for the building. Up until its move to 23 Shelbourne Road, the Israeli embassy was the sole tenant at Carrisbrook House since AIB Fund Managers vacated their offices there in 2008.

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In 2018, and with the embassy still in situ, U+I and Colony found their plans for the alteration and extension of the building become the subject of an appeal to An Bord Pleanála by the then Israeli ambassador, Ze'ev Boker.

Abandoned

While that appeal was not upheld, the planned redevelopment of Carrisbrook was abandoned following Colony’s decision last year to withdraw from the Irish property market as part of its global shift towards real estate investments linked to digital and technology companies.

The sale of Carrisbrook House to Burlington Real Estate is just one of a number of transactions being progressed by Colony at present.

Having received €292 million last April from the sale to Blackstone of its 74 per cent controlling interests in the Burlington Plaza office complex on Burlington Road and the headquarters of Three Ireland on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Colony recently secured about €25 million from the off-market sale of 23 Shelbourne Road to real estate investor Mel Sutcliffe's Quanta Capital.

Elsewhere in the city, receivers acting on behalf of the US real estate investor secured about €40 million from the sale of the former City Arts Centre site at Dublin’s City Quay to developer David Kennan’s KC Capital.

The Irish property investment and development group, MM Capital, meanwhile is understood to have preferred bidder status for Donnybrook House with an offer of about €25 million.