One of Dublin's landmark convents and boarding schools, Loreto Abbey, in Rathfarnham, is likely to be either redeveloped for apartments or converted into a luxury hotel when it is sold by tender next month.
Pat Nolan of Hamilton Osborne King is quoting a guide price in excess of £10 million for the complex, which stands on 12.1 acres off Grange Road. Almost seven acres at the rear of the convent is expected to be used for an apartment development.
Many of Dublin's leading property developers are likely to pitch for the property in view of the serious shortfall in the volume of new apartments coming on the market and the limited number of development opportunities in south Dublin.
Though only two of the five buildings going for sale are listed for preservation - the central Georgian block and the church - it is unlikely that the planners would allow any kind of alternations to the other blocks that would affect the architectural integrity of the complex. A feasibility study has shown that the existing building covering almost 100,000 sq ft could accommodate about 93 apartments and that an additional 222 housing units could be built on the gardens and tennis courts behind the abbey. Alternatively, the buildings could be converted into a 145-bedroom hotel and the site used for apartments and townhouses. The selling agents say that the planners might allow an underground car-park to be provided under the forecourt of the abbey. The Loreto sisters are to retain two buildings on the southern side of the complex. They are also keeping a small site at the rear, part of the old garden and orchard, where a retirement and nursing home is being built for elderly members of the order, 30 of whom are in their 80s and 90s. The land now going for sale includes a small lake. It is the final parcel of the 150 acres the order originally owned at Grange Road. It has been selling off land in lots since 1973.
The main buildings are anchored by the central Georgian block of rose coloured brick, flanked by the granite wings of the church on one side and the concert hall and gymnasium on the other.
An external staircase leads up to a Paladian-style entrance hall at first floor level. The hall is exceptionally large and is distinguished by a black and white tile floor and highly decorative ceilings. There are two other principal reception rooms, both of noble proportions, one of them a blue room with sophisticated plasterwork.
While the conversion of the main buildings into either apartments or a hotel should be fairly straightforward, it will be more difficult to find an alternative use for the church, which has some stunning features. It was designed by a Dublin man, Patrick Byrne, but Pugin, the famous English architect, collaborated on the design. The church has corridors all around the perimeter and decorative ceilings with a glazed dome central atrium above the raised marble altar.
Unusually, the floor underneath the church is used as a kitchen, while two floors over the church are laid out as bedrooms and bathrooms.
Loreto Abbey was acquired in 1822 by the order, which now has members in six continents. In 1928, the young Albanian novice who would later become Mother Teresa studied for two months at the abbey before going to India.
