Eagle Street Partners, a property asset management firm established by former high-ranking executives from Glenveagh Properties, is reportedly the chosen bidder for the Square Town Centre in Tallaght. This occurred nearly eight weeks after the notable retail complex went into receivership. The precise value of the ongoing offer couldn’t be determined at the time of reporting.
Previously, Oaktree Capital, the American investment company that owns the shopping centre, was engaged in exclusive discussions to sell the asset to Texas-based real estate investment manager Hines for an estimated €125 million. As these dialogue with Hines reached a deadlock, AIB, understood to have loans of over €140 million against the centre, chose Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson from Interpath Advisory as joint receivers last May. Oaktree gave its consent for the submission into receivership.
The centre, encompassing 130 retail spaces and a 13-screen cinema across approximately 570,486 square feet, was purchased by Oaktree from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) for €250 million in 2019. In addition, there was also approval for future expansion and a prospective housing site. AIB supported this business transaction from Oaktree.
The steep decline in the asset’s value echoes the broader downturn of the retail property corners of recent times, which has arisen from changing shopping behaviours due to the pandemic and the impact of increasing interest rates on the larger real-estate sector.
The Square, initially operating from 1990, held a value of nearly €640 million in 2007 when entrepreneur Noel Smyth procured 68 shops within it, forming over half the centre.
Eagle Street Partners was established in late 2020 by CEO Shane Scully, who formerly held the position of chief development officer at Glenveagh’s apartment-build business for buy-to-let financiers, and Justin Bickle, Glenveagh’s co-founder and previous chief executive. The company, since its inception, has committed more than €650 million to commercial property, chiefly in the residential and office sectors in the UK and Ireland.
Irish interests are currently involved in several business ventures, such as a partnership with London’s Nuveen Real Estate where they are developing 702 apartments in Dublin’s north docklands within the Castleforbes Business District. A parallel undertaking with Chicago’s Harrison Street aims to deliver another 554 residential units in a neighbouring development. Additionally, office blocks are being developed in Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.
AIB’s resolution to place the Square under receivership reportedly stemmed from growing impatience over the sluggish pace of the Oaktree process with Hines. Hines is believed to have tendered a bid as the process was reinitiated by the receivers.
Last year, the Square was originally marketed with a price range of €160 million to €170 million. Thus, AIB was set to suffer a financial loss from the €125 million bid by Hines, while the junior lender to the complex, M&G Investments risked losing its investment.
On other bids for the Square, property developers Ardstone, who own the Citywest Shopping Centre in Dublin, and businessman Eamon Waters, a known participant in recent property acquisitions around the capital after selling his majority stakes in Panda and Greenstar waste firms, showed interest.
Investcorp, a Bahrain-based investment firm, separately announced its acquisition of two retail park assets within the Republic, the Letterkenny Retail Park in Co Donegal and Deerpark Retail Park in Killarney, Co Kerry. This acquisition was conducted in one transaction and the combined value of the deals are reported to be around €40 million.