22 August 2021
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
International law firm DLA Piper has advised leading real estate investment management firm Harrison Street on its joint venture (JV) partnership with CA Ventures to develop and acquire purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) assets across Ireland
The JV’s first PBSA development project, totalling 623 beds, is located in Cork, at the site of the former Coca Cola bottling plant on Carrigrohane Road, and will offer students units with bed-bath parity and top of the line amenities.
DLA Piper provided complex, cross-border advice for the full suite of workstreams in this project, including finance, corporate, real estate and construction across Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg and the US.
Commenting, DLA Piper’s Head of Finance in Ireland, Conor Houlihan, said:
“It has been fantastic to represent Harrison Street again in connection with another significant PBSA investment in Ireland. As one of the larger and more active investors in this space, we are excited to see Harrison Street complete the establishment of this joint venture and the acquisition and financing of the JV’s first project at the Coca Cola factory site. PBSA is an established asset class in Ireland, where we expect to see continued opportunities and institutional interest given that supply continues to lag demand.
From our perspective, it is particularly gratifying to have been able to seamlessly cover all of our client’s needs on this transaction as one DLA Piper team across all relevant geographies (being Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg and the US) and disciplines, including real estate, financing, construction and corporate. Although fundamentally an Irish real estate development transaction, as is often the case, the locations and requirements of the various transaction parties brought a number of other jurisdictions into scope. We were glad to be able to work as one globally integrated team to cover all such locations and requirements.”
