The award-winning project redeveloped former ESB stores between Pearse Street and Erne Street, transforming them into a mixed development combining 180 apartments with a hotel, formerly the Holiday Inn and now a Maldron, offices (Worldcom) and basement car parking.
The scheme’s unique selling point was its central glazed atrium covering the walkways and courtyards to the apartment entrances and was designed by O’Dwyer and Associate Architects (ODA Architects) which included industrial-style corrugated steel roofing referencing its days as a warehouse.
Sixteen years later and the development is ageing relatively well. The main entrance still looks smart although the apartments that open on to Erne Street Lower look less salubrious.
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Interesting features
Number 147 is a three-bedroom penthouse that is accessed through the main entrance and up a set of stairs. The property opens at the top floor level and has some interesting features that the current owners only discovered after they bought it. From the entrance hall there is a half set of steps leading up to a decent sized study area – extra space that had been hidden behind a stud wall before the couple started knocking on the walls and discovered this unused volume.
The rest of the apartment is accessed downstairs. Two of the property’s three double bedrooms look out into the glazed atrium. Boasting double height ceilings these two rooms are light-filled thanks to the double layer of glazing. With ceiling heights of five metres, some of the neighbours have added a mezzanine level to these rooms but here they feel really spacious and uncluttered.
The master bedroom overlooks an open internal courtyard. This is the only room that shares a party wall with another property and to increase privacy the couple insulated this wall. The room has a huge wardrobe with pull-down rails and a shower ensuite.
The family bathroom is down the hall, as is a hot press. At the end of the hall is the property’s open-plan kitchen dining living room that spans the width of the property and boasts a private terrace that you step up to.
When they were soundproofing the bedroom the owners also changed the ceiling materials adding insulation to the original industrial corrugated steel design and plastering over it on the inside to tone down the room’s industrial feel. The renovation means it feels blissfully quiet when it rains. The kitchen has black laminate counters and shaker-style units.
The property which measures 108sq m (1162sq ft) is asking €525,000 through agent Owen Reilly who estimates that an investor could charge at least €2,500 per month generating a rental yield of 5.7 per cent.
