A key site of 14.5 acres near the Tara Towers Hotel on the Merrion Road in Dublin 4 is to be used for a mixed development of offices, apartments, a private hospital and a hotel. It is the largest site zoned for redevelopment in Dublin 4.
A consortium led by property developer Gerry O'Reilly, which bought the land earlier this year from the Religious Sisters of Charity for around £36 million (€45.71m), is due to lodge a planning application later this week for the multi-purpose scheme. Construction costs will run to around £150 million (€190.46m) and the promoters estimated that the end value should be double that figure.
Agents Spain Courtney Doyle are shortly to begin marketing 430,000 sq ft of offices which are to be provided in four eight-storey blocks. A seven-storey building at the front of the site will accommodate a 170-bedroom hotel and a private hospital which could have anything up to 200 beds. The upper floors will have views directly across Dublin Bay.
Provision is also being made for ancillary retail space, a creche and a leisure and conference centre. There is likely to be strong interest in the 200 one, two and three-bedroom apartments which will be located in a seven-storey block plus a penthouse level. The homes will look across the grounds of Elm Park Golf Club. Another 100 residential units will be built as social housing for Dublin Corporation - now a standard requirement on all housing sites.
The promoters had intended to provide a park-and-ride facility on the extensive grounds but have now been told that this would not be approved by the Dublin Transporation Office. Apparently the DTO would prefer to locate this kind of facility further out of town to reduce the volume of traffic coming into the city. The plan, prepared by architects Bucholz McEvoy, includes a basement car-park over most of the site.
The existing high wall along the front of the site is to be demolished to make way for open parkland. The site will be greatly enhanced by the creation of a linear park along a stream which runs through the land and is partially tidal. Spain Courtney Doyle is quoting rents of £27.50 (€39.28) per sq ft for the office blocks, to be known as the Merrion Business Park. Tenants will be able to avail of two parking spaces for every 1,000 sq ft of space rented.
The location of the site within a few minutes' walk of Sydney Parade and Booterstown DART stations and along a well-served bus corridor will have obvious appeal to companies looking for a high quality scheme close to the city centre. It is also be a stone's throw from the Merrion Shopping Centre.
Merrion Office Park will obviously make life even tougher for developers attempting to lease new space under construction further outside the city at Sandyford and Leopardstown.
It is estimated that around 500,000 sq ft of additional office accommodation will be available in those areas by early next year. Much of this is likely to remain empty for a considerable time because of the slowdown in the high tech sector and the fall-off in the level of inquiries. The problems of finding tenants in Sandyford and Leopardstown has already been compounded by the ever-worsening traffic jams in the area during peak hours. However, the introduction of the LUAS should eventually lead to a reduction in the number of cars arriving at the business parks.
