The investment by Hibernia Reit and its new owner, Hibernia Real Estate Group, works out an average cost of just €233 per sq ft, and has brought the Ber rating of the 11,984 sq m (129,000 sq ft) property, now known as 1 Cumberland Place, from a lowly E2 to a more sustainable and investor-friendly B2 and has seen a 63 per cent reduction in the building’s rated primary energy demand.

Developed originally in the 1970s, the former Cumberland House was acquired by the then Hibernia Reit for €51 million in 2015. With the then vacant property extending to a total area of 10,405 sq m (112,000 sq ft), the price paid equated to a capital value of about €455 per sq ft.

At the time of its purchase, Hibernia Reit said the property had significant redevelopment potential with existing planning permission to replace it with up to 23,225 sq m (250,000 sq ft) of new office accommodation. With the focus of investors and occupiers now firmly fixed on meeting their ESG (environmental, social and governance) targets, that plan has given way, for now at least, to improving the existing structure’s sustainability.

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