Bovale in £19m swap for site in Swords

Bovale Developments, the company controlled by Michael and Tom Bailey, has exchanged an industrial investment portfolio valued at around £19 million (€24.13m), and £5 million (€6.35m) in cash, for a key development site opposite the new Pavilions Shopping Centre at Swords in north Dublin.

The deal will mean a huge windfall for brother and sister Kieran Ryan and Judy Duffy, whose family have farmed the Swords land for five generations. The family has been involved for many years in breaking and producing young horses, and also operates stables at Oldtown and Garristown.

The 45-acre site in Swords has frontage on to the Dublin-Belfast dual carriageway and will be used primarily for commercial developments. Two acres of the site, zoned for housing, will probably be used for a high density scheme, given the new strategy for residential schemes adjacent to transport hubs.

The Baileys, who figured at the Flood Tribunal into land rezoning, recently sold 152 acres of housing land at Balgriffin in north Dublin to Shannon Homes' Dublin division for around £45 million (€57.14m).

As well as running a prominent housebuilding operation, the two brothers have also been very active in recent years in the commercial sector. Four of their industrial investments producing around £800,000 (€1.015m) in rental income at Mygan Park, Jamestown Road, Finglas, Dublin 11, are to pass to Kieran Ryan and Judy Duffy under the terms of the exchange.

The four high quality buildings, completed in the past three years, have a total of 180,000 sq ft and are rented by Tibbett & Britten, which occupies half the space, and also by United Parcel Service and Irish Warehouse Transportation. The rents vary from £7 and £8.50 (€8.89E10.79) per sq ft and the leases are subject to infrequent break clauses.

Although Bovale has not yet decided on a precise plan for the Swords site, its advisers will obviously be pushing for a development that will be complementary to the new shopping centre. This is likely to include offices, a hotel and possibly retail warehousing. Paul McNieve of Hamilton Osborne King handled the sale and Bovale was advised by Bill Nowlan. Philip O'Connor of solicitors Whitney, Moore and Keller also advised the vendors.