One of the best housing sites to come on the market in Dublin city in recent years goes for sale from today in the expectation that it will set a new price level for a large parcel of development land. The 4.47-acre Bloomfield Hospital site, off Morhampton Road, in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, is to be sold for redevelopment by the Religious Society of Friends - otherwise known as the Quakers.
An important condition of the sale is that whoever buys the property will have to provide an alternative nursing home and other facilities to replace Bloomfield. Douglas Newman Good Commercial values the site at over £12 million but given its privacy and seclusion just off Morehampton Road, it could well make up to £15 million.
Ben Pearson, of the agency, says the Bloomfield land is easily the finest development site to go for sale since the Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site was sold in 1993. The main entrance to the hospital is located on Bloomfield Road, at the side of Sachs Hotel, and there is also a pedestrian access on to Leeson Park Avenue, a Victorian enclave with two rows of two-storey red-bricks.
Bloomfield adjoins the Royal Hospital, which also has vast, well kept grounds. Although the Quakers would clearly prefer that whoever buys Bloomfield will be in a position to provide alternative accommodation in part exchange for the site, it is conceivable that they might agree to a straight sale if they secure a particularly strong price.
The hospital committee is to place an advertisement in The Irish Times inviting proposals from developers who are in a position to provide a 30,000 sq. ft modern nursing home and a 10,000 sq. ft administrative facility in either the south or south-west of the city. Most of the main housing developers are likely to pitch for Bloomfield Hospital because of its superb location.
Its sale will come as a surprise to the property industry because of the widely held perception that there are virtually no significant development sites likely to come on the market in either Donnybrook or Ballsbridge. The hospital is located next to Morehampton Square, a townhouse scheme completed by the Cosgrave Group in 1985.
There is every likelihood that the planners will allow a comprehensive development on the Bloomfield site because of the Government diktat that high densities should be approved where the infrastructure permits. The site is zoned for "institutional and community use" in the Dublin City Development Plan but, according to Douglas Newman Good Commercial, the planners are likely to allow a residential scheme with, possibly, a commercial element to it.
There are three main buildings on the site, one of them a 19th century house, which is used as an administrative facility. The two hospital buildings date mainly from the early 1800s and have been extended on many occasions over the years.
None of the buildings is listed for preservation.
The grounds have many fine trees, including some over a century old. The Quakers originally set up the hospital for the mentally handicapped. They collected funds and bought Bloomfield when Morehampton Road was regarded as being on the outskirts of the city.
Bloomfield was opened in 1912 and has been caring for an ever increasing number of patients since them.
In the 1970s, the hospital also began providing care for the elderly and currently accommodates 100 patients. The Quakers say that the buildings and facilities are no longer suitable for providing this kind of care.
An indication of land values in south Dublin was provided in July when a syndicate paid £12.6 million for the National College of Ireland buildings, which stand on 3.9 acres at Sandford Road, in Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Bloomfield is an infinitely better site because of its Dublin 4 location and the fact that it looks out on the extensive grounds of the Royal Hospital.
The Quakers have appointed property consultant William Nowlan as project co-ordinator for Bloomfield. Ben Pearson and Edmund Douglas, of Douglas Newman Good Commercial, are handling the sale.
