Major property developers are likely to form consortiums to bid for the Jurys Doyle site in Ballsbridge in order to spread the risk from an investment that could cost as much as €200 million, according to senior property market sources.

With the hotel group preparing to release tenders in the middle next week for the five-acre site of the Jurys Ballsbridge and Towers hotels, virtually every major developer in Dublin is examining a potential investment in a landmark site that is considered the most prestigious to have come on the market in years.

Senior market sources said that building groups such as Sisk, Shannon Homes and Cosgrave were likely to examine the site, in addition to groups such as Treasury Holdings and builders Bernard McNamara and Frank O'Malley.

Despite the many attractions of the site, separate sources said the risks in any investment arose from uncertainty about the attitude of planners to particular developments and the likelihood of planning appeals.

With a potential price of €40 million per acre on the five-acre site, the sources said that a €200 million investment would require confidence that the property market will continue to flourish.

While consortiums of private clients formed by advisers Derek Quinlan, Kevin Warren and Davy Stockbrokers are serial investors in domestic and foreign property schemes, market sources said any such groups were more likely to bid in concert with developers who have building expertise.

Potential bidders also include the Precinct consortium, whose €16.25-per-share unsolicited approach was rebuffed by Jurys this week. While Precinct has declared that it remains interested in acquiring the entire group, a further approach is unlikely for some weeks yet.

Property market sources say several groups had already taken a tentative look at the Ballsbridge site in the months since September, when Jurys initiated a review of the property.

As the market digested news of the land sale and the proposal to build a new four-star hotel on the site of the five-star Berkeley Court in Ballsbridge, shares in the hotel group lost further ground yesterday to close down 12 cent at €14.98 - lower than the original approach from Precinct, which was priced at €15.25 per share.