Irish couple's UK shop may make £50m

PV Doyle’s daughter and her husband stand to make a handsome profit from the sale of a building in London they bought just two years ago

AN IRISH business couple, Ray and Eileen Monaghan, look set to make a substantial profit when they sell a retail building, Churchill House, at 160 New Bond Street, London W1, which they bought only two years ago. It is leased to the LVMH group company Louis Vuitton.

The high profile investment was acquired in 2008 for £28.5 million (€34.1 million) and although the couple’s UK selling agents had in recent weeks been quoting in excess of £40 million (€47.3 million), reports from London suggest that a sale has been agreed at between £45 and £50 million (€54 million and €60 million).

Estate agent Fineman Ross said the property had been “reserved” but would not comment on the sale figure. Monaghan is one of three daughters of the late PV Doyle, founder of the Doyle hotel group. The women’s company, JDH, sold the Jurys Inn chain to Quinlan Private at the peak of the property market in 2007 for €1.165 billion. Before that they netted €707 million from the sale of hotels such as Jurys Ballsbridge, the Berkeley Court, The Burlington, the Towers and the Montrose.

The Monaghans, based in Sligo, also invested £70 million (€84.1 million) three years ago in a large office development at 16 Old Bailey in the City of London. Around the same time they funded a new shopping street in Sligo which is trading very well.

The decision to sell Churchhill House on New Bond Street is thought to have been triggered by a decision to relocate the Louis Vuitton store to the opposite side of New Bond Street. Louis Vuitton is the biggest profit-generator for LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods group. It is believed the group plans to move Christian Dior into Churchhill House.

The lease on the building runs to 2024 and includes a break option in 2019. There are three floors of self-contained offices, two apartments and two car parking spaces on a lower ground floor. Churchill House is producing a rent of £1,551,500 (€1,835,000) – equating to a Zone A rate of £770 per sq ft (€911 per sq ft).

Most of the demand for prime real estate in London in recent weeks has come from overseas buyers and sovereign wealth funds. Avestus Capital, formerly known as Quinlan Private Capital, has agreed to sell the Knightsbridge Estate, a portfolio of retail and commercial properties in central London, for more than £580 million (€696 million). The sale, to the Saudi Arabian Clayan Group, is due to be completed within two weeks. The portfolio was acquired in 2005 for £530 million (€636 million).