High hopes have been hit in the past by planners

SEAN Dunne bought half the AIB Bankcentre in April 2006 for €207m in a sale-and-lease deal where AIB agreed to remain as tenants.

Hibernian Life and Pensions bought the remainder of the complex, with AIB taking a total of €378m for the south Dublin office block.

Mr Dunne has identified the bank as a potential tenant if he gets planning permission for his office development.

The Bankcentre was opened in 1979 after a four-year construction period, and was designed by architects Robinson, Keefe and Devane. AIB currently occupies 10,000 sq m of the complex.

The deal includes a break clause that will allow Mr Dunne to part company with AIB after four years and 11 months. Mr Dunne also owns a number of prime office developments and sites across Dublin, including the €380m high-profile Jurys/ Berkeley Court site, which was the subject of a lengthy planning battle which he lost.

The nine-storey Hume House in Ballsbridge also features in his property portfolio.

He also owns the Blood Stone Building in Dublin's Docklands, an 80-acre site in Greystones, which was refused permission for a shopping centre; and the Zed Candy factory site in Kilcock, Co Kildare, which was also refused permission. Permission was also refused last month for a retirement village of 100 units at Stocking Lane in Rathfarnham.

Paul Melia
Irish Independent

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