News

Dillon Eustace, a leading Irish law firm, recently advised leading global real estate investment, development and asset management firm, Round Hill Capital (RHC) and its joint venture partner, QuadReal on the purchase of Blackwood Square, from The Cosgrave Property Group for €123.5m. Blackwood Square is a private rental sector apartment scheme in Santry, North Dublin.

The deal is the second investment RHC has made in Ireland with QuadReal, following the purchase of Bridgefield in 2018, another apartment PRS scheme of 216 apartments located opposite Blackwood Square.

Dillon Eustace has acted as advisers on both the Bridgefield and Blackwood Square transactions including the initial set up of the joint venture property umbrella ICAV (allowing the segregation of liabilities between Blackwood Square and Bridgefield in a single structure).

With Round Hill Capital’s development management oversight, construction will start on Blackwood Square later this month with the first phase of the development set to complete in October 2021, and the final phase due by October 2022.

Upon completion, the Blackwood Square scheme will provide 297 apartments to the build-to-rent sector.

The Dillon Eustace team on the transaction was led by Kelly O’Hara, Partner and Head of Real Estate, supported by Fiona O'Neill Construction Law Specialist and Derbhil O’Riordan, a Partner in the Asset Management and Investment Funds Team.

Commenting on the deal Kelly O’Hara said: “With Dillon Eustace’s strengths in Real Estate and Funds, we are delighted to continue to advise Round Hill Capital and QuadReal Property Group on the expansion of their Dublin property portfolio in the PRS sector.”

John Vaudin, Managing Director at Round Hill Capital (Ireland), said: “Blackwood Square will provide hundreds of new homes for Dublin, at a time when high quality modern accommodation is in short supply in the city. Ireland’s economy has transformed itself to focus on high skill sectors, boosting employment and sustained GDP growth and housing supply continues to lag behind the diverse needs of the local rental market, particularly in Dublin. We look forward to helping address this with Blackwood Square.

“This is our second PRS investment in the Santry area of North Dublin, where we have found strong demand for our existing development at Bridgefield. Blackwood Square will be a well-located purpose-built scheme with great transport links and an abundance of parkland, shops, and other leisure amenities on its doorstep. The investment marks another step in Round Hill’s plan to create a long term PRS and student accommodation portfolio in Ireland.”