Developers paid banking lobby group €20m to vacate offices

Developers paid Ireland’s main banking lobby group around €20 million to vacate their city centre offices.

The money represents more than a fifth of what the current owners paid for the entire building in 2015.

The Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), which represents all the main retail banks and payments companies in the State, had been based in Nassau House on the junction of Dawson Street and Nassau Street since 1967.

BCP International Property Fund and its investment partners, London-based Meyer Bergman, are redeveloping the five-storey building overlooking Trinity College.

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They paid in excess of €90 million to purchase the site from British insurance group Aviva in 2015 and subsequently spent further millions of euro on further property along Nassau Street.

They secured planning permission from Dublin City Council in 2016, but the BPFI, which has almost 50 years remaining on its lease, was reluctant to move.

But, following negotiations, the payment was agreed and the lobby group subsequently relocated to new offices on the third floor of Green Reit’s nearby One Molesworth Street office scheme.

BCP declined to comment on the payment and BPFI did not respond to a query.

However BCP said it had since secured planning permission for an additional floor at the development, now called Grafton Place.

“We achieved vacant possession in 2018, and have since received a decision to add an additional floor to the development,” a spokesman said. “The additional floor increases lettable space by over 17,000sq ft, and adds well in excess of €20 million of capital value to the project.

The spokesman added that contractors John Sisk & Sons were now on site.

The Grafton Place scheme, will comprise 117,000sq ft of grade A office space and 72,000sq ft of prime flexible retail space upon completion in mid-2022.