The opening of a Starbucks in the former EBS building on Westmoreland Street will rejuvenate an area that has suffered since the bank left, writes JACK FAGAN
DUBLIN’S Westmoreland Street looks set to shake off part of its rundown image with the planned reopening of the former EBS headquarters, which has been boarded up for most of the nine years since it was vacated.
The old banking hall on the ground floor is to be upgraded and converted into a restaurant for the American multiple Starbucks, while most of the space on the upper floors in the 2,787 sq m (30,000 sq ft) building are to be rented by a private college. A firm of solicitors is also in discussion to lease part of the overhead office accommodation.
Brothers Colm and Ciaran Butler who operate a number of Starbucks concessions in Dublin have agreed rental terms on the new store, which will have frontage on to Fleet Street as well as Westmoreland Street. David Goddard of Davy Stockbrokers handled negotiations for the family of the late Frank O’Kane of Mercury Holdings plc, who bought the EBS building in 2002 for over €12 million.
Though the rental terms have not been disclosed for the ground floor retail area of 371sq m (4,000sq ft) they almost certainly include a base rent of at least €80,000 as well as between 10 and 20 per cent of turnover. Overseas traders moving into Dublin are increasingly insisting that final rents should include a turnover element.
The new Starbucks will be a few hundred yards from a similar cafe near the Bank of Ireland on College Green. There are currently a dozen outlets in the city, including one at BT2 on Grafton Street, another on Dawson Street, as well as in Dundrum, Beacon South Quarter and Blanchardstown. Starbucks opened its first store in the Republic at Dundrum Town Centre in August 2005.
The company closed five outlets towards the end of 2009 – in Ranelagh, Dundrum Hughes Hughes, Swords Hughes Hughes, Dalkey and Tallaght.
The EBS, now part of AIB group, had been on Westmoreland Street since the 1940s and moved out in 2002 when it rented a new 7,432sq m (80,000sq ft) headquarters on Burlington Road from Hardwicke Ltd. A second EBS office block of 1,858sq m (20,000sq ft) beside the Dart line at Townsend Street was also sold to a jewellery firm in 2003.
The EBS continues to operate a retail office at a secondary location on Liffey Street. Also moving into the Westmoreland Street building shortly is the CCT, a third-level college specialising in computer training and business studies. It presently runs part- and full-time courses at its main centre in Amiens Street as well as at 26 Merrion Square. The college is expected to rent around 1,207sq m (13,000sq ft) on the upper floors.
While the lengthy closure and boarding up of the ground floor retail area of the former EBS building has been a major setback for businesses on the street, even more damage has been caused by the closure of the former Bewleys Cafe on the opposite side of the street.
The cafe, along with two bars, a nightclub and a hotel around the corner in Temple Bar were bought at the height of the property boom in the summer of 2006 for just over €26 million.
AIB funded the purchase for Thedforde Trading Ltd in which the main partners were Simon Kelly, Col Campbell and Rory Donohoe.
The company was later put into receivership and the well located property was put on the market just two years ago at roughly half the original price. Paul Collins of CB Richard Ellis, who is handling the sale, has had several offers for the complex but none of them have been acceptable.
