There should be strong interest in the IBOA's buildings on St Stephen's Green, writes Jack Fagan
The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) expects to secure around €20 million for its extensive premises and an office investment on St Stephen's Green in Dublin 2 following its purchase of a new office building a short distance away.
Ben Pearson of Douglas Newman Good is handling the sale by tender on July 20th.
The portfolio includes an interesting office building developed in 1981 behind the façade of a 19th century church. The office accommodation extends to 1,817sq m (19,558sq ft) and is rented at €700,000 per annum. The lease is held by the former Smurfit Paribas Bank (it was taken over by Anglo-Irish Bank) and the space has been sub-let to the Department of Justice along with 19 car-parking spaces under a short term lease.
The former Methodist church has an impressive façade with imposing stone columns. There is an internal lift servicing all the upper floors. Also included in this lot is the adjoining residential building with four self-contained apartments which are entered from Stokes Place.
The bank officials paid just over £7 million (€8.89 million) for the office investment and the apartments when it bought it early in 1999 from the Doyle Hotel Group.
Also going for sale are two adjoining four-storey over basement Georgian buildings, numbers 92 and 93, which have been used as offices and a club by the IBOA.
The union has been based on the green for almost 90 years. The buildings are interconnected on the first, second and third floor levels while the ground floor has an arched entrance to a 15-space car-park at the rear. Both buildings have a combined floor area of over 838sq m (9,020sq ft).
The sale is likely to generate considerable interest given the immense shortage of well located buildings in the city centre. One of the contenders may well be the Royal College of Surgeons which already has a large property portfolio in the area.
The decision to offload the buildings on St Stephen's Green follows the purchase for €14 million of a newly completed office building, Le Hulle House at Stephen Street Upper, Dublin 8. Nicholas Corson of Finnegan Menton handled the sale of the 1,750sq m (18,837sq ft) block which is across the road from the head office built for Dunnes Stores.
