Prime Living to flip 1.8 acre Sandyford site for €23m

Swedish student accommodation provider Prime Living looks set to make a significant return on its investment in a 1.8 acre site at the junction of Blackthorn Road and Carmanhall Road in Sandyford, south Dublin.

Just two years on from its acquisition of the former Avid Technology site for €10.3 million, the company and its Irish partner, Cara Cove Holding, are understood to be close to an agreement for its sale to a US investor for about €23 million.

Although the sale of the site at that price would mean Prime Living more than doubling its money, the €23 million figure represents a massive 254 per cent uplift of on the €6.5 million its previous owner, U+I, paid for the property in 2015.

The site was sold on that occasion with the benefit of planning permission for 147 apartments, a creche, cafe, gym and 151 car parking spaces.

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While Prime Living secured approval from An Bord Pleanála in May of this year for the development of 820 student bed spaces on the site, it is understood the prospective purchaser may consider a fresh planning application with a view to delivering a co-living scheme instead.

Efforts by The Irish Times to contact Prime Living Ireland director Paul McGlinchey for comment on the matter proved unsuccessful.

Prime Living's decision to acquire the Sandyford site had been informed by its location just 3km from UCD, and its close proximity to two Luas stations, affording easy access to Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. A change of use by the prospective purchaser to co-living could prove to be far more lucrative, however, given the growth in popularity of the Sandyford Business District with numerous of the technology, media, and telecom sector's biggest employers, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

The Sandyford property was Prime Living’s second investment in Ireland, with joint venture partner, Cara Cove Holding, a company linked to Sweden-based Ian McGlinchey, who owns a chain of Irish pubs abroad. Prime Living holds a 70 per cent share in the venture and Cara Cove the remaining 30 per cent.

Their first deal together involved the purchase of a 0.33-hectare (0.82 acre) development site in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, where they have plans to build about 136 bed spaces.