New urban centre planned for Dublin 4
The first phase of a major new urban centre planned for Ballsbridge in Dublin 4, is being launched today through a marketing campaign for high quality offices due to be completed within two years.
One Ballsbridge will have a mixture of offices, apartments and retail facilities fronting on to both Shelbourne Road and Pembroke Road and will interlink with the adjoining 6.8-acre Ballsbridge hotel site, which is also to be redeveloped to accommodate 568 top-end apartments, a 152-bedroom hotel and associated retail and commercial space.
Both sites were sold during the boom for record prices only to be put back on the market after the crash at a fraction of their original values.
The 2.02-acre former Veterinary College site now to accommodate One Ballsbridge was first bought by developer Ray Grehan for an astonishing €171.5 million. TheComer Group subsequently acquired it for €22.5 million, that is to say an 86.93 per cent discount.
The Berkeley Court and Jurys hotels were then bought by developer Sean Dunne in 2005 for €380 million, more than twice what they made when they were sold last July to Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land and the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
The 10-year planning permission is due to run out in 2021, so the consortium is expected to begin development work in the new year on the 11 interlinked apartment blocks and the hotel and conference centre.
Luke Comer, whose company has brought in McHale Investments as partners in the scheme commented :
“The commencement of this development could be compared to someone flicking a light switch as it brought a new confidence into the Irish property market. Within a few months renewed activity in the market was greatly evident.”
The combined O’Reilly and Comer sites covering an area of almost nine acres are by far the best available in the city for a mixture of top-of-the-range offices, apartments, five-star hotel, leisure centre, restaurants and bars, cafes and a healthcare facility.
Ballsbridge looks set finally to become the number one choice for working and living in the city. The Comer site will accommodate a combined net office area of 12,541sq m (135,000sq ft) in three blocks which will be among the first to be offered for letting in the current office development cycle.
