Yew Grove to purchase office building in Athlone for €12m

Building has 45,370 sq ft of modern office space and is leased to an FDI tenant

Property investor Yew Grove Reit has reached a deal to purchase an office building at the IDA Ireland Business and Technology Park in Athlone for €12 million.

The company, which owns a diversified portfolio of Irish commercial property assets, said the price represents a net initial yield of 7.2 per cent after accounting for purchase costs. The deal is expected to complete by January 3rd.

The building, constructed in 2016, has 45,370 sq ft of modern office space with associated car parking and is leased to an FDI tenant.

The lease has a weighted average unexpired lease term (WAULT) to break of 8.9 years and to lease expiry of 11.9 years. The total current rent roll for the building is €950,000 per annum.

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The building was constructed by local developer JJ Rhatigan in 2016 at a cost of approximately €9 million.

Following completion, the building was let to Teleflex Medical Europe on a 15-year lease from September 2016 with a tenant break option in year 12. At the time the lease was signed the annual passing rent was €832,890.

The tenant, Teleflex, is a leading global provider of speciality medical devices for a range of procedures in critical care and surgery.

It seeks to enable healthcare providers to improve outcomes and enhance patient and provider safety.

Teleflex employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide and serves healthcare providers in more than 150 countries and is a component of the S&P 500.

Its Athlone facility is the company’s international and global operations headquarters.

It is a shared service centre, of almost 400 employees, with departments such as finance, customer service, quality assurance and regulatory affairs, human resources, research and development, marketing communications, IT and global supply chain.

The acquisition of the building brings Yew Grove’s total footprint in the IDA Ireland park in Athlone to 205,000 sq ft in five buildings with an aggregate annual rent of about €2.4 million from four different tenants.

Yew Grove chief executive Jonathan Laredo said there was "significant opportunity" to grow the company's portfolio.

“We are pleased to have expanded our footprint in Athlone, a major med-tech hub in Ireland,” he said.

“This is a desirable asset with an excellent tenant in one of the country’s premier business and technology parks and will allow the company to expand in line with our clients.

“There remains significant opportunity to grow this portfolio, both through further acquisitions and through asset management opportunities within the existing properties, and these activities will generate superior returns for our shareholders.

“We continue to effectively deploy our capital in a portfolio at attractive yields with robust tenant covenants and very strong occupancy.”

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter