Irish real-estate investor and operator Fine Grain Property has acquired a 124,000sq ft (11,500sq m) five-floor office building in Shannon’s Westpark Innovation Campus from global company AXA Partners. With a value estimated by market sources to be in the region of €20 million, the purchase of Building 7000 represents Fine Grain’s largest sale-and-leaseback deal in Ireland to date and consolidates its ownership of all the properties at the 40-acre scheme. AXA Partners will continue to operate from two floors of the building through its leaseback agreement.
Fine Grain Property had acquired all of Westpark Innovation Campus, apart from Building 7000, for more than €50 million in 2019. At the time of its purchase, the scheme had 50 companies on site, including DHL, Pepper, Aercap and Enterprise Ireland, and had planning permission secured for 300,000sq ft of tailored office space. Westpark business campus was established in 2005 and developed by Westpark Shannon Limited’s principals, Brian and Bridget O’Connell.
The purchase of the Shannon business campus capped a three-year run of investments by Fine Grain in which it spent €175 million on properties distributed across Galway, Athlone, Limerick, Dublin and Cork.
Commenting on her company’s sale of Building 7000, Cathryn Smullen, head of Axa Partners Shannon, said: “We are delighted to welcome Fine Grain Property as our strategic property partner on foot of this transaction. This will remove the headaches associated with property ownership, release capital to our balance sheet and improve the office experience for our staff.
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“The deal is a win-win for both companies. It enables AXA Partners to invest and focus more on our core business and allows Fine Grain Property to do what they do best in meeting our property needs.”
Fine Grain Property real-estate director Damien Kilgannon said: “This sale-and-leaseback transaction represents a significant and exciting step for our company. It signals the trust that AXA Partners has in us to take responsibility for their property needs and provide a quality, collaborative workplace community in which it can continue to thrive.”
With a workplace community study carried out by Fine Grain Property in December 2021 finding that 63 per cent of Irish companies were operating from self-owned properties, Mr Kilgannon added: “This reflects the historic absence of professional landlords that can exceed clients’ expectations and build workplaces that foster innovation and collaboration. Sale and leaseback provides a great opportunity for companies to remove the headaches of property ownership and release capital to grow their core business.”
AXA Partners were advised by Fergal Burke of Avison Young through this transaction.
