Receiver sells €6m in BlackBee assets at Cork's City Quarter

BlackBee Investments associated company Aperee had made significant investments into the nursing home sector, setting out to build a €100m portfolio, but several of their development projects on this front — including in Glanmire and Rochetown, Cork — have stalled.

A number of the nursing homes BlackBee/Aperee had acquired have also been put up for sale: five went to market last month guiding in excess of €9m for receiver Gerard Murphy.

The latest disposal on Mr Murphy’s instructions is at City Quarter, on Lapps Quay, part of the early 2000s Cork docklands vision for ambitious developers Howard Holdings.

Howard Holdings’ €100m development City Quarter, which included the Clarion Hotel (now, a 191-bed Clayton Hotel) over a double basement was the first, lead foray into the city’s docks and new central business district.

It has since been followed on a far larger scale on the north and south quays at Horgans Quay, Albert Quay, and Kennedy Quay by the likes of O’Callaghan Properties, JCD Group, and BAM/Clarendon.

Future docklands development is continuing on several mixed use fronts, with apartments considered the next wave, at Horgans Quay, the Sextant pub site/Kennedy Quay, and down in the Marina.

Putting BlackBee’s assets at City Quarter up for sale, selling agents David McCarthy of Sherry FitzGerald Commercial, acting with Philip Hosford of H Property, describe the development as landmark, in a prominent position in the city centre, and in the heart of the evolving central business district.

Likely strongest asset is the office space/investment, comprising ground floor and third floor offices of 26,586sq ft, in the larger c 100,000sq ft five-storey City Quarter block.

The third floor comprises five office suites, laid out around a central service core and is fully occupied under various leases with a current total passing income is €431,000 pa.

Existing tenants include Glandore Business Centre, NIB Travel Insurance, GJ Moloney Solicitors, Cornmarket Group Finance Services Ltd, and Goodbody Stockbrokers. Tenants are unaffected by the investment sale, and the agents say they are “fitted to an extremely high standard with raised access floors, extensive natural light, and panoramic views of the city and River Lee.”

The ground floor is mixed use and comprises a vacant fully fitted own door office suite — suitable for a public-facing occupier, perhaps — as well as the self-contained fitted restaurant most recently trading as Docklands.

Both are described by agents Sherry FitzGerald Commercial and H Property as “ready to go and should both draw significant interest from prospective tenants given their strategic location”.

The entire mix — with 80% occupancy — has a guide of €6m and reflects a blended Reversionary Yield of approximately 9.3% after normal costs, with existing tenants unaffected.

If bought individually, the Docklands/Club Brasserie restaurant is guided at €625,000; the BlackBee/Aperee offices suite at ground level at €625,000, and the standalone glazed kiosk let to Café Gusto at €250,000, leaving a value of c €4.5m on the fully-let floor three, producing an income currently of €431,000 (floor three was previously offered at €5m with other agents, for 19,000sq ft).

“The property presents a unique opportunity to acquire a substantial mixed use investment with extensive asset management opportunities and an estimated rental value in the region of €620,000 per annum upon full occupancy,” says Mr McCarthy, adding there’s potential to secure tenants and grow income by astute asset management.

Other occupiers at City Quarter include EY and Orsted, with employee communication platform Workvivo by Zoom who recently launched a new hub there for 100 jobs. The common areas of the building have recently undergone a full refurbishment.

On the wider picture, the agents say “office vacancy rate in Cork is reducing and there is a shortage of Grade A plus offices with more than 100,000sq ft of space going through legals at present.”

The immediate area is set to hold 500 apartments (300 at Horgans Quay, under construction, and 200 at the Sextant site in a 26-storey tower in a JCD Group partnership with Cork City Council).

Launching this €6m mixed use offer at the City Quarter scheme which kickstarted the city’s move downriver almost 20 years ago, Mr McCarthy added that docklands regeneration “has commenced in earnest with plans for Cork Docklands which is Irelands largest regeneration project currently in full swing, with €353m allocated through the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), alongside more than €500m of private sector investment with more than 2,000 apartments in the short-term pipeline.”

Details:
Sherry FitzGerald
Commercial, 021-4270099;
H Property, 086-2488789