Lad Lane flats scrapped for office block

DUBLIN property developer, Ellier Developements, has abandoned plans to build 85 high end apartments on Lad Lane in Dublin 2 because the project is no longer viable following the steep fall in residential property values.

Instead the company is to seek planning permission for a six-storey office block now that there are signs of a likely shortage of top grade office space in the central business district in 12 to 18 months.There are no new large office developments under construction in the area at present.

Ellier, whose principals are Francis Rhatigan and Chris Jones, narrowly outbid 14 other developers for the one-acre leasehold site owned by the Office of Public Works at the height of the property boom in March, 2004. They paid € 22.5 million for it and subsequently acquired the freehold from the late John Finnegan’s Pembroke Estates. The lease had 92 years to run.

The well-located site has extensive frontages onto both Lad Lane and Pembroke Row and is bounded to the west by the seven-storey high Wilton House offices and by the five-storey Wilton Court apartments.

Francis Rhatigan said they had no option but to change their development strategy because it no longer made sense to build apartments at a time when values were on the floor. The site was ideal for a top grade office development within easy walking distance of a wide range of facilities.

Ronan Corbert of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald said that after two of the worst years for the Dublin office market, take-up of space in the central business district still exceeded 30,000sq m (322,920sq ft) per annum.

There was currently about 90,000sq m (968,760sq ft) available but with the anticipated upturn in the market this year, take-up of Grade A space in the first three months had already reached 25,000sq m (269,097sq ft). The indications were that there would be a shortage of space in 12 to 18 months. This would inevitably force tenants to agree a pre-let while the blocks were under construction.

Ellier has lodged a planning application with Dublin City Council for a six-storey office building to be known as Wilton Place with a net floor area of around 12,000sq m (129,168sq ft). The main feature of the € 30 million block will be a six-storey high glazed central atrium. There will also be a double height entrance lobby extending to 208sq m (2,238sq ft), basement parking for 38 cars and 152 bicycle spaces.

Ellier has been largely involved in building houses and apartments in recent years. It has built and sold several hundred units in Knocklyon in Dublin 16 and also completed a large office and apartment scheme at Hanover Quay in the south Dublin docklands before the property market went into freefall. Four of the six floors in the 6,500sq m (69,996sq ft) building are occupied by Facebook.