€3 million for former Hume Street hospital

ONLY TWO MONTHS after it was offered for sale, Dublin’s former Hume Street Hospital, off St Stephen’s Green, has been sold for about €3 million – one-tenth of the price its owner paid for it six years ago.

The purchaser was one of a small group of interested parties invited by agents Jones Lang LaSalle to submit best and final offers by last week. The identity of the new owner has not been disclosed.

The 90 per cent fall in value of the six 250-year-old Georgian houses is much steeper than for fairly similar commercial properties in the city because of severe water damage caused to the buildings after thieves climbed on to the roof and stripped it of much of its protective lead flashing. Gutters and downpipes were also stolen, allowing water to soak into the brickwork.

The severe slippage in value is also likely to have been dictated by the widely-held view among developers that restoring and remodelling listed houses is considerably more difficult and more expensive than building from the ground up.

The former Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital was bought by property developer Michael Kelly in 2006 with the intention of turning it into an upmarket serviced office centre. He has retained ownership of a building to the rear at Ely Place.

Mr Kelly’s expensive property gamble failed not only because of the sharp downturn in the economy and the banking crisis but also because of a long-running disagreement with the planners over a height restriction at the rear of the buildings.

His side argued that a refusal to allow him build a six-storey office block in place of rundown 1920 buildings had rendered the entire development, including the conservation and restoration of Georgian buildings, “financially unviable”.

The current planning permission puts a limit of four storeys on the height of a proposed rear office block “in the interests of visual amenity”.

Shortly after buying the Hume Street, Mr Kelly admitted paying “top dollar” for it but said he had no regrets as “properties like that crop up once in a lifetime”. Six other developers also tendered to buy the former hospital.

The serviced offices planned for the site were to have been owned and managed by his firm, Glandore Business Centres, which operates from the former Bank of Ireland premises at Fitzwilliam Hall, overlooking the Grand Canal at Leeson Street Bridge. It also has serviced offices in a Georgian house at 33 Fitzwilliam Square and at Arthur House in central Belfast.

Last month, an alliance of artists, architects, conservationists and local politicians urged the Government to acquire the 18th- century buildings on Hume Street for cultural uses.

The group suggested that a combination of State, philanthropic and private investment should acquire and restore the terrace, which could become part of the cluster of cultural and public buildings in this part of the city.