Dublin, Ireland

Assignment

In 2014, an Irish developer approached FinanceBoston with an off-market opportunity to acquire and redevelop a half-acre parcel of Victorian-era warehouse buildings, just northeast of Dublin’s Four Courts neighborhood. The city government desired to rejuvenate this area, which was once Dublin’s main wholesale fruit, vegetable, and fish market. The vision was to create an artisan style food hall, similar to the popular English Market in Cork City. Due to the uniqueness of the project and the inability of Irish banks to provide loans in the wake of the banking crisis, financing posed a challenge.

Approach

Along with the local developer, FinanceBoston directly invested in the project and was able to secure debt and equity outside of Ireland, leveraging relationship from other markets.

Results

By leveraging its international relationships to raise both debt and equity, FinanceBoston created a completely unique financing strategy for the purchase of the parcels. As the Irish economy improved and the property market gained more liquidity, this neighborhood of Dublin became a prime development target and values increased exponentially. In 2018, FinanceBoston was presented with an offer to purchase the property that was almost three times the original purchase price. Leverage in an otherwise cash only market, allowed the investors to achieve well above market returns on their investment.