Amazon buys Tesco's 'shed' in Walkinstown
Amazon, the internet book seller, has bought the former Tesco storage facility at Greenhills Industrial Estate in Dublin 24 in the largest industrial property sale of the last 12 months.
The 22,539sqm facility had been on the market for over two years after the supermarket chain decided to move its warehousing operation to a state-of-the-art facility in Turvey in Donabate in north Co Dublin.
Neither party are disclosing the price. Jones Lang LaSalle, the agents for Tesco had been quoting €7.5m at one stage for the property which is located on a site of almost 13 acres.
In the current market it is believed to have sold for below the asking price. Garrett McClean of CB Richard Ellis acted for Amazon and Nigel Healy of JLLS acted for Tesco.
Amazon is setting up data centres in the Greenhills property as well as in two Dublin northside buildings including one at the Snughborough Industrial Estate in Ballycoolin. It has also taken a 10-year lease on the former Modus Media building owned by developer John Flynn at the Clonshaugh Industrial Estate.
According to Mr McLean there are a number of requirements for data centre accommodation in Dublin, including one from Digital Realty Trust, and the key factors in securing these occupiers are fibre connectivity and electrical power supply. One deal fell through during last year because of insufficient power.
Research from CBRE also shows the Tesco sale boosted lettings and sales of industrial units, known in the trade as sheds, in the last quarter of 2010 to 54,767sqm. This was 35pc more than Q3 and 2pc above the same quarter of the previous year.
The Q4 take-up brings the 2010 total to 172,621sqm, representing a growth in Dublin industrial take-up of 29pc over the previous year.
Sales accounted for a much larger proportion, 43pc of overall take-up than in recent quarters due to the Tesco sale. There were 23 lettings signed in Dublin during Q4 2010 totalling 31,447sqm.
- Donal Buckley Property Correspondent
Irish Independent
