EastPoint offices leased to Google guided at €7m

A 20-year-old building recently upgraded by tenants Google at EastPoint Business Park in the Dublin docklands is to be offered for sale to investors hoping to avail of the capital gains tax concession before it runs out at the end of December.

Jacqueline Fitzpatrick of JLL is guiding €7 million for the three-storey Block R, which has an overall floor area of 3,672sq m (39,524sq ft) and is let to Google under three separate leases from May 1st, 2013, for a period of 10 years.

Google is not due to start paying the €257,253 rent – equating to only €5.75 a square foot – until February next in lieu of the considerable expenditure to which it went in refurbishing the building.

The company has a break option in September 2015, subject to six months’ notice.

There are unconfirmed reports that the internet search multinational is also to take over a building previously occupied by Yahoo.

Google’s refurbishment work on the EastPoint block included the installation of a new air conditioning system and reception area, demolition of the canteen and communications rooms and the replacement of carpets and ceilings.

The much-improved facilities will not be deemed to be an improvement for rent review purposes when the rent is due to move to open market value in May 2018.

At a selling price of €7 million, the building would pass to the new owner at €1,905 a square metre (€177 a square foot) – less than the cost of replacing it.

Ms Fitzpatrick said the low rent of €61.9 a square metre and €500 for each of the 52 car-parking spaces clearly took into account the capital expenditure on the building by Google.

She said there was now a shortage of high-quality office blocks close to Dublin city centre, particularly building of this size, and this would inevitably lead to higher rents.