InShort

A roundup of today's other stories in brief.

€500m provincial portfolio taken off the market

The Galway-based Kenny development group appears to have abandoned plans to sell off a large provincial property portfolio which had been expected to make around €500 million. Agent DTZ Sherry FitzGerald had invited "best bids" for about 25 properties in Galway, Limerick, Dublin and Cork and, though a considerable number of offers were made, the tenders were apparently returned. It is understood that the portfolio is owned by four members of the Kenny family.

The Galway properties offered for sale included 10 development sites of almost 78 acres, four mixed-use commercial sites, 118 Section 50 apartments and houses, and a mix of 22 townhouses, apartments and penthouses. Most of these are located in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology student village in Galway.

The Limerick properties comprised a 44-acre development site, a hotel, bar and restaurant, an office property, 10 apartments and seven industrial units. In Cork there were four sites and three commercial investments.

Former gallery on Capel Street to make around €750,000

The former Davis Gallery - owned by the late Gerald Davis - at 11 Capel Street, Dublin 1, is expected to make around €750,000 when it is sold by private treaty through DTZ Sherry FitzGerald.

The building was run as a gallery for about 30 years and has a net floor area of 314sq m (3,380sq ft), including 87sq m (936sq ft) at ground floor level.

Digital Hub takes up more office space in the Liberties

Dublin's Digital Hub continues to expand and has rented the first floor of Eblana House in Marrowbone Lane, a new five-storey building off Cork Street in an area which is poised for major redevelopment.

The building is owned by Dublin City Council which has retained the top three floors for its own use. The Digital Hub, a Government initiative to create an international centre of excellence for digital content and technology enterprises, has taken the 592sq m (6,372sq ft) offices on the first floor on a new four-year and nine-month lease. The letting was negotiated by Simon McEvoy of Jones Lang LaSalle.

The letting means that all the office space in the building is occupied while retail units on the ground floor, ranging from 66sq m (710sq ft) to 340sq m (3,660sq ft), are still available through Jones Lang LaSalle.

The Digital Hub is centred around a nine-acre campus that is only a 10-minute walk from the city centre and within the historic Liberties area. It will involve the creation over the next six years of a significant mixed-use development, consisting of enterprise, residential, retail, learning and civic space, and advanced IT network infrastructure. Its closeness to the city centre is supported by the Luas line which runs nearby, as well as numerous bus services.

€430 per sq m rent for office space in Fitzwilliam Square

Turley & Associates is quoting a rent of €430 per sq m (€40 per sq ft) for office accommodation in an exceptionally fine Georgian house at 5 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2. There is a total of 353sq m (3,800sq ft) available at basement, ground and first floor levels. The agent may let on a floor-by-floor basis. The building has elevator access to all floors and there is car-parking available.

Refurbished Victorian office in Dublin 4 makes €2 million

The Square Design Agency has paid €2 million for a new headquarters building at 11 Bath Avenue, Dublin 4. DTZ handled the sale of the recently refurbished and extended Victorian building which has a floor area of over 201sq m (2,164sq ft). It was owned by Kensington Construction.

Strong demand likely to push up office rents in Dublin area

Demand for office space in Dublin is at its highest for eight years, according to the latest office report from Savills Hamilton Osborne King. The agency says that, while the take-up last year was 216,000sq m (2.325 million sq ft), only 166,000sq m (1.787 million sq ft) was built. However, the level of new space this year will increase to 215,000sq m (2.314 million sq ft) but demand is increasing at an even faster rate.

Roland O'Connell, director of Savills HOK, predicted that Dublin office block rents would rise by 8 per cent this year to €650 per sq m (€60.38 per sq ft) while rents for ready-to-go single floors would increase by 13 per cent to €700 per sq m (€65 per sq ft). Suburban areas have not seen the same level of rental growth as the city centre but, with a fall off in suburban supply and the better quality buildings coming on to the market, O'Connell said he expected that rents here would rise to €270 per sq m (€25 per sq ft). Prime office yields now stand at 3.85 per cent.

Offices to rent over Avoca shop

Modern offices above the latest Avoca shop and cafés to open in the Dublin area are available to let through Jones Lang LaSalle at rents considerably below those in the city centre. The offices are above Avoca House in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, beside the N7 and just beyond the Citywest business campus. The suite is to let on a flexible lease at an annual rent of €270 per sq m (€25 per sq ft). There are also 30 car-parking spaces available at €650 each.