Dunne aiming high with a 14-storey office block

Developer Sean Dunne is set to submit a planning application for a €380m office block. It would be on the site of the existing Hume House offices next to his Jurys hotel site in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

The development will have a gross floor area of 320,000 sqft and it will range in height from seven to 14 storeys. The planning application will be in the name of Mountbrook Riverside IV Development Ltd., whose directors also include Peter Halpenny, Ross Connolly and Brian O'Neill.

Mr Dunne acquired the building for the equivalent of about €130m back in 2006 when he did a swap deal with Irish Life whereby he got the 80,000 sqft Hume House building -- and in return Irish Life's investment funds received a much larger 133,000 sqft office block.

This is located in the Grand Canal Docks and the Mountbrook group built and leased it to leading legal firm, Matheson Ormsby Prentice (MOP).

Hume House covers an area of around two-thirds of an acre, which implied a valuation of some €195m per acre, a new record for property prices in Ballsbridge in 2006.

Meanwhile, nearby, Bord Pleanala is currently considering Mr Dunne's plans for a €1bn mixed-use development on the Jurys hotel sites which will include a 37-storey tower standing 132 metres, sculpted like a diamond.

Approval

He has already received Dublin City Council approval for 294 family-sized apartments, a 13-storey 232-bedroom hotel, a 16-storey embassy building, and a cultural centre.

However, he plans to seek further development on the site while the appeals board received a record 127 submissions about the plans.

The Hume House site is separated from the Jurys site by the former 2.2-acre Veterinary College site which is owned by Ray Grehan who has also received Dublin City Council's approval for a €600m development including 200,000 sqft of offices as well as a 15-storey apartment tower.

Designed by HKR Architects, Grehan's development is known as Number One Ballsbridge and will include 109 apartments along with shops and leisure space.

Mr Grehan's Glenkerrin Group paid €171.56m for the site in 2005.

That set a new record price per acre for development land topping the €380m which Mr Dunne paid earlier that year for the Jurys and Berkeley Court sites.

Donal Buckley
Irish Independent

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