Developer Joe O’Reilly in talks to sell planned site of Dublin’s tallest residential building

Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land is understood to be in talks with the Royalton Group, the UK-headquartered property investor and developer, in relation to the potential sale of the landmark “Hickeys site” on Dublin’s Parkgate Street. News of the negotiations comes just weeks after it emerged that the German-headquartered investor Commerz Real had pulled back from its plan to provide some €200 million in forward funding for the construction of a 30-storey (98.4m/322.83ft) residential tower on the 1.65-acre (0.67 hectare) holding. A spokesman for Chartered Land declined to comment on the matter of its discussions with the Royalton Group when contacted by The Irish Times.

Should a deal for the Parkgate Street site proceed, it would represent the Royalton Group’s second major residential scheme in Dublin. The developer is already working in partnership with Tristan Capital Partners on 485 build-to-rent (BTR) apartments as part of its delivery of the Hamilton Gardens scheme in Cabra, Dublin 7. The development, which is nearing completion, will also include concierge facilities, a business centre and meeting rooms, residents’ lounges, creche and gyms, together with a 20,000sq ft supermarket and 402 car-parking spaces surrounded by landscaped gardens.

Established in 1999, the Royalton Group operates across a range of property sectors including luxury residential, BTR, purpose-built student accommodation, hotels, asset management on behalf of family offices, and real-estate consultancy.

While a potential sale price for the Parkgate site remains unclear, O’Reilly paid in excess of €30 million — or just under €18.2 million per acre — to secure ownership of the property in 2018. The figure represented a premium of 50 per cent on the €20 million price agent Finnegan Menton had been guiding when they offered the site for sale in an ‘off market’ placing in May of that year. Prior to its purchase by the Chartered Land and Castlethorn Construction chief, the property had been in use by Hickeys as a wholesale warehouse for more than 40 years.

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Although the site did not have planning permission at the time of its sale, it did have an Objective Z5 zoning under the Dublin City Development Plan, the stated purpose of which is “to sustain life within the centre of the city through intensive mixed-use development”.

Having secured planning permission in June 2020 for the majority of its original proposal including 321 homes, 3,698sq m (39,805sq ft) of offices, hospitality and retail space, Chartered Land subsidiary Ruirside Developments was requested by both An Bord Pleanála and Dublin City Council to revisit the design of the Parkgate Street scheme’s landmark tower.

Based on that direction, Ruirside conducted an architectural competition and selected UK firm Glenn Howells Architects and Dublin-based Reddy Architecture + Urbanism to work on the design of a new building. While the developer’s original 29-storey tower was to have comprised 160 apartments, the new 30-storey building will accommodate 198 units, and is to date the tallest residential structure to have been approved for development in the capital.