WORK is to begin next month on a speculative office scheme along the front of the former Irish Sugar Company offices at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. The development is to be carried out by Davy Hickey Properties, which bought the site and the old Irish Film Centre from Sisk Properties.
A 12,000-square-foot block is to be developed between St Stephen's Green House and the Conrad Hotel while a second block of 8,000 square feet will be built on an adjacent site.
Davy Hickey plans to sell both blocks once they have been leased. The letting agent, Jones Lang Wootton, is likely to be seeking £18 per square foot for a single tenancy and £20 per square foot in the event of multiple tenancies. There will be 25 car-parking spaces available. Planning permission has been sought to convert the former film centre for use as a restaurant and nightclub.
St Stephen's Green House has been fully let since it was refurbished by Sisk Properties. The Office of Public Works has three floors, Green core occupies the two top floors, with the Legal Aid Board and QBS Insurance renting the other floors.
Davy Hickey will have been encouraged by the news that the State-run National Medicines Board has paid a premium of more than £150,000 for the ACT Kindle office block in the adjoining Earlsfort Centre. It is the first time key money has been paid for offices for more than a decade.
Davy Hickey, which is also involved in the CityWest Business Park, has secured around £150,000 per acre for a site of 2 1/2 acres in the west Dublin complex. The German software and engineering design company, Tuchenhagen, has secured planning permission to build a new 35,000-square-foot building on the site.
