A new development of five logistics facilities in south west Dublin totalling 1.05 million sq. ft. Set in 81 acres, it is located between the N7 Naas Rd and Casement Aerodrome Baldonnell. All five buildings have been designed and constructed to a market leading specification with focus on maximising operational efficiencies, flexibility, and creating a desirable environment for employee wellbeing.

2022 has been an outstanding year having completed on three of these best-in-class logistics facilities totalling 882,000 sq. ft and all have been pre-let to major global occupiers.

1. Unit C (88,933sq. ft) - let to Home Store + More.

2. Unit D (134,485sqft) - let to DB Schenker.

3. Unit E (660,172sq. ft) - let to Amazon and is their first large scale fulfilment centre in Ireland.

Units F (72,646 sq ft) &Unit G (96,930 sq ft) make up the final phase of the development and are under construction with completion scheduled for April 2023.

Key Challenges

There were a number of challenges to overcome to deliver this development which included:

The development is located adjacent to the runways of Casement Aerodrome which is the home of the Irish Air Corps.
The Catchment Flood Risk Assessment Management Maps (“CFRAMS”) programme carried out by the Office of Public Works (“OPW”) predicted significant overland flooding from the river Camac across major sections of the site.
In 2017 Mountpark appointed consultants to prepare a flood risk mitigation strategy. Due to the complexities involved it took over two years and several meetings with South Dublin County Council, Irish Air Corps and Inland Fisheries to finalise the mitigation measures which included:
A new 300m long spillway (1.61 acres) to take rising floodwater from the river Camac to theswales;
30-acres of seven swales and a detention basin that retains over 148,000 m³ of floodwater. The floodwater then flows back to the Camac at an attenuated rate;
The swales also attenuate rainwater arising from the development. There are no underground stormwater tanks in the development which represents best Sustainable Drainage System (“SuDS”) practice in terms of ecology and sustainability; and
3,100 metres offencing and 15 acres of the swales have been netted to prevent large flocking birds accessing these swales. This is the largest private swale system with netting in Ireland.
These measures significantly benefit our neighbouring properties as well as the Irish AirCorps and reduce downstream flooding.
The government imposed Covid-19 construction lockdown in 2021, coupled with cost inflation and financial pressures affecting the construction industry created further challenges throughout the development programme.

Sustainability

The buildings are designed to comply with the Irish Nearly Zero-Energy Building Standards (“NZEB”). This includes roofing and cladding with very high thermal efficiency and performance, heat pumps, high levels of air tightness, passive solar design, heat recovery, with metering and sub-metering to measure and monitor energy performance. All the buildings have solar PV panels on the roof providing a total of 777 kW peak power (3/4 MW) which is very welcome to our customers in this high energy cost market.

BREEAM Excellent is targeted on all buildings with Very Good at a minimum. The approach is Lean, Clean and Green. EV Car charging is provided as standard whilst including ducting throughout our car parks should an occupier wish to add further charging points in future.

All of our green credentials are focused throughout the design and construction stages of the building and reducing carbon footprint within the construction process. Earthworks materials arising on site were reused in stabilised building platforms as much as possible to significantly reducing surplus materials removed from site.

By providing these high-quality buildings with live monitoring of energy usage in each reception area, our Customers become more reactive and engaged with their energy consumption.

Well-being

High quality landscaping in riparian parkland setting along the banks of the river Camac provides pathways, benches and trim trail equipment. There are three separate exercise trails up to 1850m long for our Customer’s employees to enjoy.

37,500 large plants including large trees, scrubs and hedging have been planted along with 31,000 smaller ornamental plants including flowers, feature grasses and bulbs. 5 acres of wildflower meadow along the Camac provides a riot of colour for the pollinator species and the walkers to enjoy. There are also 30 acres of swales networks.

Staff welfare facilities include improved showering amenity to actively support the use of the outdoor fitness facilities and cycling to work.

Full height glazing in the offices, ribbon glazing above dock levellers and glazed panels in roller shutters improves natural daylight into the offices and marshalling areas of the warehouses.

Collaboration

Home Store + More (“HSM”)were among the first people we spoke to when we entered the Irish market. Their latest facility, Unit C, was designed to their exact business needs and is a vote of confidence for the relationship we have created but also the quality of the facilities at Mountpark Baldonnell.

We engaged early on in the development programme with DB Schenker which was particularly important given the lead in times and time pressures the construction industry has been facing as a result of Covid-19 and Brexit, this enabled us to create a bespoke heating and sprinkler system that upon Practical Completion was fully operational for our client.

We have attracted significant international occupiers such as Amazon to the development and that building in particular is entirely bespoke to their exact requirements.

Mountpark Baldonnell represents an inward investment of €300m.

Specified

All of our buildings provide market leading specification over what has typically been provided in Dublin’s logistics market.

We enable our occupiers to use buildings vertically in volume in addition to floor area, with clear internal heights from 14 to 15.4m.

Larger service yards depths of 53-67m provide future flexibility to occupiers and the warehouse floor slabs have extensive loading criteria to allow for future mezzanines and potential future heavy loading.