A site of 14.5 acres at Merrion Road, Dublin 4, is almost certain to set a record for development land in the city when it is sold by tender on March 8th. It is the most important site to come on the market in Dublin 4 for decades and should easily exceed £35 million.
Gerard Henry of Farley Property, who is handling the sale for the Religious Sisters of Charity, says that under new zoning introduced in the 1999 Dublin Development Plan, planning permission can be sought for 27 different types of developments.
However, the likelihood is that the site will be used for a mixture of high tech offices, a hotel and apartments.
The land is located behind a high wall directly opposite the Jacobs International office block on the Merrion Road. It has extensive frontage on to the Merrion Road and is divided from the Caritas Convalescent Centre by a partially tidal stream.
The site backs on to Elm Park Golf Club and also has frontage on to Belleview Avenue, a little known road that runs along the side of the Tara Towers Hotel. It is the last remaining large site in Dublin 4 zoned for redevelopment and will have views over the coastline at the front and the golf club at the rear. It is within a few minutes walk of two DART stations and the Merrion shopping centre.
As a guide to purchasers, a study by town planners suggests that the site could easily accommodate over 433,000 sq ft of high tech offices in seven-storey blocks of similar height to the Tara Towers, a 200-bedroom hotel and leisure centre and 257 one, two and three-bedroom apartments.
Most developers would probably prefer to use the entire site for a commercial scheme given the general reluctance to hand over up to 20 per cent of residential sites for social housing.
In a separate transaction, the Religious Sisters of Charity have donated three acres at the rear of Merrion Road campus to Dublin Corporation for 93 homes for elderly people, those with disabilities and "empty nesters" who agree to vacate larger homes rented from the city council. The religious order is also to give two convents and land in the grounds as a gift to St Vincent's Hospital to allow it to develop its facilities further. The combined value of the land and convents is estimated at over £25 million.
The proceeds of the sale of the Merrion land is to be used by the Sisters of Charity for a number of purposes, including rehousing members of the order when the two convents are handed over, and funding educational, health and care services run by the order in Ireland, Nigeria and Zambia.
Mr Henry says that in 50 years of handling development land, he does not recall a site of the size, quality and location of Merrion going for sale on the open market.
Dublin Corporation introduced the Z12 zoning "to ensure that existing environmental amenities are protected in any future use of these lands". High on the list of options open to developers will be science and technology-based industry with ancillary offices - the high tech sector which has been the dominant force in the office letting market over the past five years.
With office developments in Dublin 4 virtually at a standstill, despite the continuing demand for space, most of the major developers are expected to pitch for the Merrion land in the knowledge that the pension and life funds will be keen to acquire part of any new commercial development.
Once the land is sold, it is planned to open a new entrance both to the proposed development and the various facilities operated by the religious order. The previous highest price for development land was the £31 million paid for 10 acres at Griffith Avenue. Before Christmas a consortium bought a site of over 11 acres at Galloping Green for close to £28 million.
