French investor in €16m deal for Garda Ombudsman headquarter offices

The French fund Inter Gestion REIM has made its second investment in Ireland’s commercial real estate market, paying €16 million for a high-profile office and retail property at 21-24 Capel Street in Dublin city centre. The bulk of the five-storey over-basement building serves as the headquarters of the Garda Ombudsman Commission while the ground-floor level is occupied by a Spar convenience grocery store.

The investment will provide Inter Gestion REIM with long-term secure income of €1,267,960 annually and a net initial yield of 7.2 per cent. The French fund managed to acquire the property for 17 per cent less than the €19.2 million agent JLL had been guiding when it offered it for sale in May of last year. Damien McCaffrey of BNP Paribas Real Estate represented the purchaser and Brian Shields of JLL represented the vendor.

Inter Gestion REIM entered the Irish market in June 2023, paying €26 million to Aviva and Iput for B&Q’s flagship store at Liffey Valley in Dublin. With the DIY retail giant paying an annual rent of €2.02 million, Inter Gestion secured a net initial yield of 7 per cent on its investment.

At the junction of Capel Street and Abbey Street, 21-24 Capel Street comprises a modern office building of 36,288sq ft (3,371sq m) with a convenience store at ground-floor level. The offices are leased in their entirety under a single, full repairing and insuring (FRI) lease to the Garda Ombudsman Commission, the independent statutory body responsible for the fair and impartial oversight of policing in Ireland. The commission agreed to lease the building before its completion in 2007 in order to have a self-contained, secure office with bespoke fit-out at ground-floor level. A scheduled rent review was agreed in early 2023 at a net effective rent of €32.50 per square foot with the next rent review due in April 2027.

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The ground-floor retail unit is leased to a subsidiary of the BWG group, the parent group for numerous retail brands including Spar, Eurospar, Londis and Mace. The lease is for a 25-year term, running to April 2031 at a passing rent of €125,000 annually. The sale also included 14 car parking spaces in the building’s secure basement car park.

Inter Gestion REIM, is a real estate fund manager and management company. The company, which has been in business for more than 30 years, is continuing its European diversification in Ireland with a strategy based on the viability of tenants and their ability to weather crises. It has already invested €28.6m during the first trimester through the acquisition of a laboratory in the French Alps, and a new office building leased to a major international green tech company in the French city of Lyon.