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Irish Life has restated its commitment to the Dublin office market with a decision to pre-fund the €125m development of 13-18 City Quay in the docklands.

The 118,000sq ft office building – which will be built by Bennett Construction – has been pre-let to business advisory specialists Grant Thornton, and ownership of the property will be transferred to Irish Life upon its completion in May 2018.

The development of the City Quay offices is being led by the City Development Fund, a sub-fund of Targeted Investment Opportunities (TIO) ICAV, which is linked to US firm Oaktree.

Last year, the TIO fund pre-let, built and sold 8 Hanover Quay, which now serves as the European headquarters of Airbnb.

Other TIO projects include 5 Hanover Quay – a 160,000sq ft office building due for completion in the first quarter of 2018 – and 76 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, a scheme comprising a 100,000sq ft office building and 72 luxury apartments.

TIO chairman and Oaktree managing director Justin Bickle said it was “further evidence of the strong fundamentals in the Dublin office market”.

“We have invested significant capital in Irish real estate in the past five years and continue to believe in Ireland’s economic growth prospects and job- creation opportunities,” he said.

Irish Life has invested heavily in the Irish market in the last four years, acquiring properties with a combined value of over €1bn.

Only recently it purchased the Velasco on Grand Canal Street in Dublin 2 for an estimated €58m.

Irish Life also acquired Hume House, Ballsbridge for a price in the region of €35m, and is developing 1GQ at Georges Quay and a refurbishment at 2-4 Merrion Row.

“We are very pleased with the addition of 13-18 City Quay to our portfolio of prime Dublin City office properties,” said Irish Life’s head of property, Martin O’Reilly.

“Upon completion, it will be a state-of-the-art office building offering an environmentally-sustainable and energy-efficient work environment.

“The acquisition through forward funding of this core pre-let development nicely complements the high-quality office stock in our portfolio, which has been reinvigorated through new acquisitions, refurbishment and development through the current cycle.”
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