McKillen jnr buying up St Stephen’s Green block for high-end Press Up hotel

Oakmount, the development company headed up by Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan, is in the process of assembling a major site at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin city centre, as part of an ambitious plan for a new high-end hotel to be operated as part of their Press Up Hospitality Group.

Having paid just over €17 million last year to acquire UK fashion retailer Topshop’s former flagship premises at 6-7 St Stephen’s Green, McKillen and Ryan are understood to be closing in on the purchase of several other properties on either side of the building.

In the first instance, Oakmount is pursuing a deal to acquire the home of the former Hibernian United Services Club at number 8 St Stephen’s Green. The building, widely acknowledged as one Dublin’s finest Georgian properties and currently home to the Dublin headquarters of Axa subsidiary the XL Group, comprises a substantial four-storey over-basement townhouse dating back to circa 1770.

The building, which was offered to the market by agent Cushman & Wakefield last September with the benefit of vacant possession at a guide price of €20 million, extends to a total of 2,640sq m (28,418sq ft) of lift-serviced office space, a gym, showers and a large outdoor terrace.

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The property’s original cornicing, sash windows and shutters, ornate fireplaces, exposed brickwork, stained glass and ceiling roses have all been fully restored and remain intact throughout.

Number 8 is zoned Z5 under the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022, which provides for a wide range of uses subject to planning permission. Crucially for Oakmount, this zoning would allow for the building to be converted for use as a hotel.

While the acquisition of number 8 would provide Oakmount’s planned hotel with an overall footprint of 5,122sq m (55,134sq ft) when combined with the 2,482sq m (26,716sq ft) floor area of number 6-7, McKillen and Ryan are said by market sources to be closing in on the purchases of 4 and 5 St Stephen’s Green as well.

In the case of number 5, the developer is understood to have made an unsolicited approach to the building’s owner Aviva Ireland, as the building, while vacant, isn’t on the market.

Oakmount’s bid to buy number 4, meanwhile, has been more straightforward. The property, a four-storey over-basement building, was offered for sale by agent JLL in October 2019 at a guide price of €4.25 million.

The property’s ground floor and basement are in use and trading as Insomnia Coffee Company. The company occupies the premises on a 10-year lease which dates from 2021. The three upper levels are currently in office use throughout.

Although number 6-7 St Stephen’s Green has lain largely dormant since the departure of Topshop, the building is set to come back into use shortly as the latest location for Irish flexible workspace provider Grafter.

Smyth House, as it is known, was built originally in 1870 for the famed Dublin wine merchants and grocers Robert Smyth & Co. The building, with its many elaborate stone carvings, still retains the initials RS.