Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council in €18m deal for prime residential lands in Cabinteely

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is understood to have agreed a deal to pay Nama about €18 million for a prime residential development site with scope for up to 370 homes just off Brennanstown Road in the South Dublin suburb of Cabinteely.

The price being paid by the local authority represents a significant discount on the €35 million which had been sought originally by CBRE when it brought the 29.4-acre site known as the Brennanstown Plot to the market on behalf of Nama-appointed receivers Declan McDonald and William O’Riordan of PwC in 2018. That sale process came to a halt soon after when developer Johnny Ronan issued High Court proceedings in which he claimed that he and his family were being denied rights of access over the lands which they had enjoyed for decades. While that dispute came close to being resolved in 2020 with Mr Ronan agreeing to buy the site for €29 million, the deal was never completed.

In October 2021, the land was offered for sale at new and lower guide price of €23 million but failed to find a buyer. In February 2023, the receivers went to the High Court and sought injunctions preventing Mr Ronan’s company, RGRE, from interfering with the sale of the property.

The case was settled before being heard by the court however with RGRE giving an undertaking not to interfere with the sale process. The developer also consented to a declaration that a March 2020 contract for sale had been lawfully rescinded and that RGRE had forfeited the deposit it paid by its failure to complete the sale. It was further agreed the defendant had no legal or beneficial interest, or any other claim, to the property.

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Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council in €18m deal for prime residential lands in Cabinteely

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Notwithstanding the resolution of that dispute, the price for the Brennanstown Plot was lowered further still to €18 million last summer. It is now set to be acquired for about that price by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Located between the South Dublin villages of Cabinteely and Foxrock, the Brennanstown Plot comprises two lots consisting of a combination of residential and commercial development land, and forestry.

Lot 1, known as Druid’s Glen, comprises 8.8 acres of residential development land and 11.1 acres of forestry land. It is occupied by three houses at present, namely Glendruid House, a protected structure, Druid House and Knockanree House.

Lot 2, known as Lehaunstown, consists of 9.5 acres of residential development land, with a small portion zoned for town-centre use under the Cherrywood Strategic Development Zone. This would facilitate about 600sq m of commercial space. The site is bound by a narrow laneway to the south, the Luas green line to the west, and vacant land to the east and north.

The northern section of the site will in future be bound by a proposed road linking the N11 with the suburbs of Foxrock and Cabinteely. The Lehaunstown lot also includes three houses, one of which is derelict.