Gowan House for sale for €7.5m as motor importer relocates

Feasibility plan for site shows potential for 201 apartments with ground-floor retail units

Strong interest is expected in the sale of Gowan House on the Naas Road, Dublin 12, currently home to the Gowan Group of motor importers who are relocating to larger premises in Citywest.

Guiding €7.5million, the landmark site at the city end of the Naas Road is about 2.3 acres (0.93 hectares), and lies in a highly accessible location along the Naas Road close to the Luas Red Line, bus routes and the M50.

Gowan House is at the city end of the Naas Road, instantly recognisable as it is currently home to Opel, Peugeot and the Citroën and DS franchises.

The current building on site is used for a modern, single-storey, detached warehouse facility incorporating extensive two storey office accommodation extending to about 40,000sq ft.

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The site benefits from significant frontage of about 80m on to the Naas Road.

There are a number of large employers in the surrounding industrial parks, in addition to the city centre multinational firms. Hospitals nearby include St James’s Hospital; Children’s Health Ireland, Crumlin; the Coombe hospital and the national children’s hospital which is under construction.

Site

Under the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 the site is zoned objective Z14, “to seek the social, economic and physical development of an area with mixed use of which residential and ‘Z6’ would be the predominant uses”.

O’Mahony Pike Architects has produced a feasibility study for the site which provides for an attractive scheme of 201 apartments with associated tenant amenity and ground-floor retail to the Naas Road. The scheme has been designed to build-to-sell standards but given the very good public transport network the site would ideally suit a build-to-rent scheme.

A spokesperson for Knight Frank said the site “represents a significant residential redevelopment opportunity with a high existing use value”. Knight Frank said the site was ideally positioned for redevelopment given the Luas and close proximity to the Red Cow interchange and the M50 motorway.

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien is an Irish Times journalist