Stoneweg buys former HP business campus in Leixlip

Liffey Business Campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Photo: Barrow Coakley Photography

Liffey Business Campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Photo: Barrow Coakley Photography

Liffey Business Campus

Liffey Business Campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Photo: Barrow Coakley Photography

Donal Buckley

April 22 2021 02:30 AM

Stoneweg SA, the Swiss-based property investor, has acquired Liffey Business Campus, a mix of industrial, manufacturing, and office space across one million sq ft, plus 58 acres of development land, at the former Hewlett Packard campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare.

The vendor, BlackRock Real Assets, declined to disclose the sale price.

In 2018, the Indepednednt.ie reported that BlackRock Real Estate had joined forces with developer Michael O’Flynn to acquire the former Hewlett Packard campus, for a figure understood to be in the region of €51m. That sale involved a larger 195-acre plot with nine buildings and was one of the largest industrial transactions to have taken place in the Irish market.

Before this latest sale to Stoneweg, BlackRock is understood to have sold another portion of the HP site which is located just south of the M4 motorway.

BlackRock also completed a “comprehensive asset management programme” and increased the amount of tenanted space to 700,000 sq ft including a letting to a tech company of 340,000 sq ft.

A BlackRock spokesman said rents ranged in the order of Stg£7.50 to Stg£15 per sq ft. (€8.70 to €17.40 per sq ft).

In a statement, BlackRock said the “business plan was pursued alongside one of BlackRock Real Assets’ local partners O’Flynn Group”.

It also said it has completed over €300m in acquisitions in Ireland in the last five years.

Eastdil International and Cushman and Wakefield Ireland were the agents involved in the deal.

Stoneweg, which focuses mainly on residential and logistics property, has been active in the residential development market in Dublin for over two years and has invested in seven projects to date.

Its associate company Alphabet ABC Properties Ltd is planning to develop a 397-unit co-living scheme at 118-122 Cork Street, Dublin 8.

Located on a 2,243 square metre site, the co-living building will range in height between four and seven storeys over basement with 14,047 square metres of gross floor space plus an ancillary basement of 513 square metres.

Stoneweg was established in 2015 and has offices in Geneva, Spain, Italy, Andorra, the US and Ireland.

Globally it manages over €4bn in assets.