Irish investment consortium in €6.5m deal for landmark Donnybrook Mall

A consortium of private investors based in the west of Ireland has paid about €6.5 million for the landmark Donnybrook Mall in Dublin 4. Acquired by developer Sean Dunne for €17 million at the height of the last boom, the mall last changed hands in 2014, with its outgoing owner, an individual private Irish investor, paying €6.6 million to secure ownership of the 1,448sq m (15,590sq ft) property. On this occasion the scheme was offered to the market by agent Lisney last September at a guide price of €6.8 million. The buyers are believed to have secured the property in the face of competition from a number of parties.

The mall’s new owners will have the benefit of immediate rental income of €450,343 annually from a strong tenant line-up which includes Tesco, Lloyds Pharmacy, the well-known dry cleaners Lyknu, Abrakebabra, and the long-established bridalwear boutique Marian Gale.

The complex’s development potential is borne out by its positive planning history with one of Sean Dunne’s companies, Padholme, securing permission from Dublin City Council in 2008 for a three-storey over-basement mixed-use development of 3,455sq m (37,189sq ft) comprising six retail units, two office units, one restaurant/takeaway, one bank unit and four two-bedroom apartments as well as 15 car spaces. The permission was subsequently extended in 2014 to 2019.

Donnybrook has seen significant residential development over recent years, with much of this aimed towards the upper end of Dublin’s private rented sector (PRS) market. Richmond Homes is currently at an advanced stage of building 139 apartments at Eglington Place on the corner of Eglington Road and Donnybrook Road, while Keith Craddock’s Red Rock Donnybrook Ltd obtained planning permission for a 10-storey 84-apartment build-to-rent scheme on the Circle K petrol station site opposite Bective Rangers’ rugby grounds.

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Developer Shane Whelan’s Westridge Real Estate, meanwhile, is developing a 91-unit co-living scheme across seven storeys on the site of the former Kiely’s public house.

At Donnybrook Crescent construction is under way of Lovett House which is an eight-storey mixed-used development containing 49 build-to-rent apartments.