A PRIVATE investor has paid slightly over £400,000 for the former branch office of the Irish Permanent Building Society at 54 Dame Street, Dublin 2. The 19th century building is to be extensively refurbished and the upper floors converted into apartments. The five-storey building, which has a floor area of 3,370 square feet, will qualify for the Temple Bar tax breaks. Irish Permanent has transferred its Dame Street operations to College Green, where it has taken over the Guinness & Mahon building.

Fergus Slattery handled the sale and Michael Harrington of Palmer McCormack acted for the purchaser, a Dublin businessman.