The partners
Four equal partners, over 90 years of combined experience.
Backgrounds in investment, asset management, finance, development consultancy and hotels, across Ireland and the UK.
The partners
-
Aaron Sherlock
Partner
Aaron has over 23 years of experience in real estate investment. Before founding Grand Canal Capital Partners he founded NNK Real Estate Investment Management in 2013, which acquired over €200 million of assets on behalf of its investors. Before that he managed a €2 billion loan portfolio within the IBRC NAMA unit and led the €26 billion AIB valuation and transfer programme at CBRE. He began his career with Knight Frank in London. At the firm he leads on execution and on capital: structuring, financing and the relationships with the investors we act for.
He holds an MSc in Property Investment from the University of Reading, is a qualified financial adviser, and is a member of the Investment Property Forum and the Institute of Bankers.
Mobile -
Christopher Belton
Partner
Christopher has worked in commercial property for twenty years, predominantly in investment, advisory and development consultancy. He spent twelve years at Lisney, from 2012 to 2024, rising to Director in its Investment division, where he acted for institutional and private investors on the purchase and sale of commercial property in Ireland. In that time he advised on more than €1 billion of transactions and over €10 billion of valuations. Earlier he worked at CBRE and at DNG Commercial Property. At the firm his work centres on acquisitions, asset management and the building of investment platforms for investors.
He holds an MSc in Real Estate Finance from the University of Aberdeen and a BSc in Real Estate Management from Oxford Brookes University, and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Investment Property Forum.
-
Dave Murray
Partner
Dave has over 20 years advising institutional investors, family offices, lenders and operators on hotel investment, development and asset strategy in Ireland. He was most recently a Senior Director with CBRE Hotels in Dublin, having earlier established the Christie & Co hotel brokerage in Dublin and spent three years with Ulster Bank. He has advised on hotel transactions with an aggregate value above €3 billion. Dave was also project lead on the project management of the valuation process relating to the transfer of the €26bn loan book transferred to NAMA. He has advised on operator selection, trading potential and viability for hotel projects, and on strategy for hotels already trading.
He holds a BComm from University College Dublin and an MSc in Real Estate from the Dublin Institute of Technology, is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, and is an Accredited Product Adviser with the Institute of Bankers.
-
Jonathan Hillyer
Partner
Jonathan has over 30 years of experience across property, asset and fund management, and has been based in Ireland since 2001. His career has taken in agency, institutional investment and the management of property portfolios through more than one cycle, including as Director and Managing Director at Cushman & Wakefield and at HWBC. At the firm his work centres on acquisitions and asset management for investors in Ireland and the UK; he led the off-market acquisition of Half Moon Street, Cork, for an Irish developer's regulated vehicle.
He holds a BSc (Hons) in Estate Management from South Bank University, London, and is a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
How to reach us
Our office is at 2nd Floor, 10 Duke Street, Dublin 2, D02 AD78. Each partner can be reached directly by email or mobile, or correspondence can be sent to [email protected] and will be passed to them directly.
All four partners are directors of Grand Canal Capital Partners Limited. The firm is licensed by the Property Services Regulatory Authority, licence number 004745, and the partners acting in a property services capacity hold the individual licences shown above.