UK property giant Henderson Park received an offer of over €150 million for One Molesworth Street from Zara founder Amancio Ortega’s investment firm Pontegadea during the Covid-19 pandemic, which it ultimately declined. The prime Dublin office block is now set to return to the market six years later, through agent JLL* at a guide price of €110 million.
While the proposed sale of the property is understood to be generating significant interest on this occasion among prospective purchasers, the completion of a deal at its new and discounted level would see Henderson Park securing at least €40 million less than it would have had it decided to sell to Pontagadea in the early and uncertain days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Best known as the home of Barclays’ Irish headquarter offices and the Ivy Dawson Street, One Molesworth Street was first offered to the market by Henderson Park in January 2020 as part of its proposed €400 million sale of the Capital Collection, a portfolio of five prime Dublin offices it had acquired as part of its €1.34 billion buyout of Green Reit.
The portfolio also included 2 Burlington Road, 5 Harcourt Road, 30-33 Molesworth Street, and Fitzwilliam Hall. While Henderson Park secured a total of €249 million from the sales of these four office blocks at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022, The Irish Times understands the company was unwilling to sell One Molesworth Street for the €150 million-plus being offered by Pontegadea.
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The property is understood to have been carrying a guide of about €175 million as part of the wider Capital Collection portfolio.
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Savills as the agent
