Developers buy Chester Beatty library for £7.2m

Dublin's most exclusive road is likely to get its first apartment block after the sale yesterday of the Chester Beatty library and its grounds of almost an acre on Shrewsbury Road for £7.2 million.

The Galway developers, O'Malley Construction, who beat off stiff competition to buy the site at auction, is almost certain to seek approval for a luxury apartment block that will be the most expensive yet built in the city. The underbidder was the solicitor and property investor, Mr Stephen McKenzie, who owns a large detached home next to the library.

There were three other bidders at the packed Sherry FitzGerald auction where offers opened at £4 million. The property was declared on the market at £5 million and rose in bids of a quarter of a million and later at £100,000 a time.

The £7.2 million equates almost exactly to the £3.6 million paid last December for an adjoining site of just under half an acre on Shrewsbury Road. The businessman, Mr Niall O'Farrell, who bought the site from the School of Pharmacy, is building two large three-storey houses on the plot. The library is acknowledged as a "trophy" site which would allow an accomplished firm like O'Malley to deliver a top-notch apartment scheme.

Around 30 apartments are likely to be allowed under the new high-density guidelines being implemented by planning authorities. These could cost from £750,000, with the most expensive fetching at least £1.5 million.

All three buildings on the library site, a house and two exhibition areas, are likely to be demolished.

O'Malley will be well aware that they can expect stiff opposition to any large development from the wealthy families living on the road.

The site is unlikely to be affected by the Government's aim to have 20 per cent of all new developments set aside for social and affordable housing. Even if that proposal is implemented, the O'Malley scheme could still be exempt as the developers - and indeed the residents - are likely to argue that Shrewsbury Road is not suitable for social housing.

The Chester Beatty library, which has been in Shrewsbury Road since 1953, was recently relocated to Dublin Castle. The site backs on to the Simmons court Pavilion in the RDS grounds.