Eagle Street Partners signs €78.5m contract for Castleforbes site
Potential for 702 residential units and a 219 keys hotel to be developed at Docklands site
DUBLIN & JERSEY, 26th August 2021: Eagle Street Partners Group Limited (“Eagle Street”), a pan-European real estate investment and asset management firm founded in December 2020, today announces a significant land acquisition in Dublin, highlighting material progress in its business strategy.
Castleforbes, Dublin sites acquisition
This morning, Glenveagh Properties PLC (“Glenveagh”), an Irish homebuilder listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Dublin, announced that Glenveagh had exchanged contracts for the sale of a 4.6 acre residential and hotel site at Castleforbes Business Park (“Castleforbes”) in Dublin’s Central Business District (“CBD”) for €78.5 million with a subsidiary of Eagle Street.
The Castleforbes site, which benefit from full planning permissions, is capable of delivering 702 residential apartments and a 219 keys hotel in Dublin’s CBD, which has seen significant development over the past decade. The transaction is expected to be completed in Q4 2021 and has a gross development value (“GDV”) in excess of €500 million in respect of the residential and hotel components.
When delivered, the residential units will represent one part of Eagle Street’s vertically integrated Irish private rented sector (PRS) platform, Resident Space, which will be launched this year in conjunction with major international real estate investors. Resident Space will become one of Ireland’s leading PRS players, targeting the delivery of at least 5,000 purpose-built residential units in Dublin over the coming years. The team is actively exploring further potential pipeline sites for the residential platform.
The Castleforbes site is well known to Eagle Street’s founders, Mr. Justin Bickle and Mr. Shane Scully, having acquired them in an off-market transaction while at Glenveagh in 2018. Glenveagh has since obtained full planning permissions for the sites and completed significant value engineering and detailed design works, bringing the sites closer to delivery.
Both Mr. Bickle and Mr. Scully have previously delivered, in conjunction with Bennett Construction, a number of Grade A office, residential and student developments in Central Dublin, totalling €1.1 billion of GDV and 1.4 million square feet of institutional grade space for major blue chip local and international tenants, such as Airbnb and Grant Thornton.
Speaking on the transaction CEO Shane Scully said:
“This significant deal represents the rollout of our PRS business strategy in Ireland. In recent months we have had a number of approaches concerning similar opportunities, and we are eager to explore avenues, alongside our cornerstone investors, that will allow us to transform sites like Castleforbes into vibrant, high-quality residential and commercial spaces of the kind needed in Ireland at present.”
Eagle Street’s progress and leadership experience
Eagle Street was founded by Mr. Bickle and Mr Scully in December 2020 and is owned by its two founders and backed by an institutional investor. Since inception, Eagle Street has grown its team to 12 professionals, with offices in Jersey, Dublin, London, and Luxembourg.
Over the course of the past eight months Eagle Street has, including the Castleforbes transaction announced today, committed over €150 million in invested capital towards offices, hospitality and residential development real estate projects in Ireland and the UK, including the acquisition of four yielding office buildings in the UK and Ireland and a further one in the UK to exchange shortly. These office acquisitions combined total over 300,000 square feet and include tenants such as GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and Accenture. Eagle Street’s investments have to date been principally sourced off-market.
Eagle Street’s senior leadership team comprises Mr. Bickle (Executive Chairman and CIO), Mr Scully (CEO), Mr. Peter Gavican (COO) and Mr. David McLoughlin (CFO) who each serve on Eagle Street’s Investment Committee. Mr. Gavican joined Eagle Street from Glenveagh and Mr. McLoughlin from Guggenheim Partners.
The team are supported by Mr. Bob Crompton (Senior Advisor) and Ms. Gina McDonald (HR Operating Partner). Mr. Crompton is the former CEO of The Student Housing Company, an Oaktree backed company which grew to a £1.6 billion pan-European student accommodation developer and operator, while Ms. McDonald has held a number of senior strategic HR roles for leading investment firms, including Oaktree.
Notes to Editors:
About Eagle Street
Founded in December 2020, Eagle Street is a pan-European real estate investment and asset manager with offices in Jersey, Dublin, London, and Luxembourg. It is focused primarily on the UK and Ireland, and other select European markets. Eagle Street is owned by its founders and backed by an institutional investor.
Eagle Street acquires, develops, refurbishes and manages real estate assets and portfolios in its target markets. The business invests across commercial property, residential, hospitality and life sciences.
Eagle Street unlocks value during the acquisition, development and asset management phases, to create institutional calibre assets and achieves investment scale through its dedicated operating platforms, such as Resident Space.
Eagle Street is actively seeking new investment opportunities in the UK and Ireland and is keen to build on its momentum to date and reputation for providing transaction certainty to vendors.
For more details, please see the following websites:
www.eaglestreet.com
www.residentspace.com
Media Enquiries
Please refer all press queries to eaglestreet@powerscourt-group.com