The refit king

Established in Singapore in 2006 by Irish entrepreneur Colin MacDonald, now the company’s founder, executive chairman, Fine Grain shifted its focus to Ireland in 2015 and has enjoyed a vigorous decade of activity here since then. An investment adviser to four regulated property funds, Fine Grain owns and runs office spaces, R&D facilities and business parks across Ireland that support over 70 Irish, US and international clients, along with their 7,000+ employees.

The business model treats sustainability not just as a goal but as a distinct point of view. According to the Irish Green Building Council, 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the materials used in new construction. ‘We take a position on embodied carbon and a view that repositioning a viable building is the best strategy,’ Lennon says.

The emissions from demolition and rebuilding are not the only factor, he points out. A further issue, easily missed, is around emptying tenanted buildings for construction work. ‘The expense of moving people for that process can be enormous and a further source of emissions.’

Real vision

Lennon appreciates there are limits to what can be done but says they have not affected Fine Grain’s ambitions to date. ‘The buildings we typically target are those from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s. It’s not a one size fits all, but there are a lot of buildings from the period that, sensitively repurposed, can deliver high-quality stock into the market.’

Connaught House on Dublin’s Burlington Road offers a working example of Fine Grain’s approach. Built some 20 years ago and 85% occupied, the building was ‘well liked by its occupiers but had a very poor energy rating and needed investment’, Lennon explains. ‘In 2024, we bought it and are investing about €17m in upgrades. It will be the equivalent of a new office build when that work is completed. That’s a win from an environmental perspective, for our investors and clients, and for the employees who love working in that location.’

Appointed CEO earlier this year, Lennon’s connection with Fine Grain goes back to its early days. In 2006, while in the corporate finance division of MKO Partners (today Eisner Amper Ireland), Lennon began working with MacDonald as the idea for the business took shape.

In 2010, a career shift towards banking led to a 13-year stint with KBC Bank, where, among other roles, Lennon led the corporate and commercial banking department. When KBC announced its departure from the Irish market in 2021, ‘I had to make a decision about what to do next. Colin and I had always remained in touch and, as Fine Grain had moved back to Ireland, that connection grew. The chance to be part of a business with a real vision for the future excited me.’

It was a vision that had at least one question mark hanging over it, for a while at least: the place of the office in the post-Covid world. It is a debate Lennon feels has now been settled.

‘Coming out of the pandemic era, there was a lot of uncertainty around what occupiers were going to do next,’ he says. ‘What we’ve seen across our portfolio over the last two years are very significant increases in occupancy and a shift back to the office. At a minimum, people are in three days a week and that’s rising to full time among some US clients. I think flexibility has an important role to play in the way we work, but the office as a base, where people can learn, collaborate and grow, is now more fully appreciated.’

Data-driven decisions

The new role of CEO is proving ‘a pretty varied one’, Lennon says. ‘I’m across the entire business, working with our investors, raising new capital and leading our team on a day-to-day basis. I’m fortunate to have a very strong team who are really committed to our strategy. We have about €300m of assets under management currently and the plan is to double that over the next three years.’

Lennon credits ACCA as being foundational to his career to date, providing skillsets that he uses daily. ‘The grounding ACCA gives in areas like strategy and ethics, and the focus on continuous professional development, is very significant. Our business is very much data-driven. Everything we do involves looking at the numbers. Being able to assess those logically with the grounding you get from ACCA is huge.’

While Fine Grain’s focus is currently on the Irish marketplace, the connection with Singapore remains a live one, with a holding company and many of the company’s investors based there. If those founding years helped shaped a ‘can do’ ethos they also, fittingly, provided the company’s name.

‘Colin was the owner’s representative on the redevelopment of the Fullerton Hotel back in Singapore in the late 1990s,’ Lennon explains. ‘It had been the old general post office and is a very significant building culturally in Singapore. At one site meeting, the deputy city manager commented that the development was about the fine grain of Singapore’s real estate. That image stuck. We are about those things that maybe others don’t see but that really go to the heart of a city and a place.’