Grand Canal Square car park on the market at €18m

With the number of visitors to Dublin’s south docklands continuing to grow following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the sale of one of the few secure car parks in the area is expected to appeal to a wide range of operators and investors. Located directly underneath the landmark Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, the Grand Canal Square Car Park is being offered to the market by agent Colliers at a guide price of €18 million.

While John and Bernie Gallagher’s Crownway Investments may well be interested in securing control of the facility given their existing ownership of the theatre, the combination of the car park’s forecasted net income of €900,000 for 2023 and Dublin City Council’s restrictions on future car parking provision in the city’s south docklands should see strong competition from a number of parties.

Grand Canal Square car park is located at the west end of the Grand Canal Dock, directly underneath the so-called “red forest” of Grand Canal Square. The entrance is overlooked by the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and the five-star Marker Hotel.

Built in 2009 as part of Chartered Land’s wider development of the Grand Canal Dock area, it extends to around 10,000sq m (107,639sq ft) and features fully-automated barriers, payment machines and floor-to-ceiling heights of 2 metres. The car park, which operates on 24/7 basis, comprises 161 marked car-parking spaces and is one of the main underground car parks in Dublin city centre, facilitating convenient access to the city’s fast-growing south docklands and beyond.

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Currently operated by Q-Park by way of a management agreement, the car park has seen a substantial increase in business post-pandemic thanks to the resumption of full activity at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and the Marker Hotel, and the ongoing return of workers to the offices of the numerous major corporate occupiers in the immediate area. These include Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Accenture, Indeed, Docusign, Tenable, Accenture and McCann Fitzgerald.

The Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, meanwhile, is due to open two new offices in the south docklands shortly. In the first instance the company will occupy the entire 202,000sq ft (18,766sq m) of office space at the Sorting Office, which is located immediately across from the entrance to Grand Canal Square car park. More recently TikTok signed a deal for all 7,897sq m (85,000sq ft) of office accommodation at the Tropical Fruit Warehouse on nearby Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.

Matthew Vanston of Colliers says: “Given the significant undersupply of parking in the vicinity this investment offers immediate capacity to deliver a stable income stream with limited voids and management requirements. We expect to see strong interest from both investors and operators alike.”