Businessman Gerry Conlon is to redevelop at least two of the blocks on Haddington Road for offices and apartments, writes Jack Fagan
Two headquarters buildings owned by the Hibernian Insurance Company at Haddington Road and Percy Place in Dublin 4 are to be redeveloped and enlarged to accommodate apartments and offices.
The redevelopment plan is shortly to be unveiled by the Kildare businessman Gerry Conlon who has just bought the two blocks along with an office investment for around €80 million. It is understood that he was advised by Declan O'Reilly of HT Meagher O'Reilly. Earlier this year Conlon and a former business partner Dermot O'Rourke sold the Millennium Park at Naas for €320 million.
Conlon outbid several developers for the Hibernian portfolio which was offered for sale following the company's decision to lease a new headquarters of up to 18,580sq m (200,000sq ft) at Upper Hatch Street. The relocation allows the company to bring all of its 1,200 Dublin-based staff together for the first time.
Conlon is expected to concentrate initially on redeveloping two freehold four-storey buildings between Haddington Road and Percy Place which are over 20 years old. The most valuable of them, Haddington House, has a floor area of 4,227sq m (45,500sq ft) and 26 basement car-parking spaces. It stands on a site of 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) which could accommodate a substantially larger mixed-use building.
Even as it stands, Haddington House is valued at over €30 million but, given the popularity of the area, its value would rise sharply once it is redeveloped. It is likely to be let on a short lease before being redeveloped.
The second four-storey block also in line to be demolished and redeveloped is Haddington Court on Haddington Road which has a net floor area of 2,756sq m (29,665sq ft) and 17 car-parking spaces. Conlon has just agreed to let the building for a three-year period while he awaits planning permission to replace it with a more appropriate block on the site which extends to 1,470sq m (15,823sq ft).
Also included in the Hibernian portfolio is a four-storey over basement building let to Bank of Ireland on a 35-year lease from 1981. The current rent of €825,012, due to be reviewed next June, works out at €363.28 per sq m (€33.75 per sq ft) and €3,175 for car-parking spaces.
Hibernian originally planned to offload Hibernian House, an office block of 1,427sq m (15,360sq ft) which it is leasing from Friends First, but later dropped it from the portfolio. Hibernian is now expected to assign the lease separately.
