Docklands/from €315,000: Forty-one two and three-bedroom apartments in Dublin's docklands go on sale from plans today. Jack Fagan, Property Editor, reports
Another 40 one, two and three-bedroom apartments are being released for sale today in the biggest purpose-built neighbourhood in the Republic - Spencer Dock in the Dublin docklands.
Agent Hooke & MacDonald says it has already sold 450 homes and agreed sales terms on a further 50 just as construction gets under way on the 51-acre site between the IFSC and the Point Depot. The first phase of the homes will be ready to move into within two years.
The 40 apartments going on the market today will be priced from €315,000 for one-bedroom units with a floor area of 48.3 sq m (520 sq ft). Two-bedroom homes with 60.3 to 89 sq m (650 to 960 sq ft) will range from €375,000 to €540,000. There will also be a number of three-bedroom apartments with 88.2 to 92.9 sq m (950 to 1,000 sq ft) costing from €480,000 to €665,000.
The apartment element will account for about half the overall Spencer Dock scheme which is the largest urban development ever attempted in the State. When completed, it will have around 3,000 apartments, 278,709 sq m (three million sq ft) of offices and supporting shops and leisure facilities.
Architect Scott Tallon Walker has designed an imaginative scheme and Sisks has been engaged to build the apartments which will be located in a range of eight and nine-storey blocks beside the Grand Canal, which is to be restored and widened.
A new park along the realigned canal will divide Spencer Dock from the IFSC, where well over 1,000 apartments have been built since 1990.
Several hundred apartments have also been sold on the opposite side of the river at Grand Canal Harbour, which will be linked to Spencer Dock by the planned Calatrava Bridge.
Robert Tincknell of developer Treasury Holdings predicts that Spencer Dock will be a "truly metropolitan place to live, as with all the transport modes passing the site (both the Luas and the DART), the car will no longer be a necessity".
Treasury Holdings has built a large sales centre on the Spencer Dock site where interested parties can choose from a variety of contemporary fittings and furnishings designed to give the apartments the best finish in the docklands and indeed the city.
The emphasis has been on creating crisp modern kitchens and bathrooms. Much attention has been given to the treatment of internal light and space to ensure that residents will have top class facilities.
Patios will be quite spacious and there will be large balconies to allow access from the bedrooms and living areas. Bedroom wardrobes have been designed in Italy while bathroom accessories are coming from Villeroy and Boch.
Each apartment is to be wired for sound and purchasers will have the option at an extra charge of using a central button to operate video, DVD and CD player.
The developers are to use American oak front doors and windows with metal on the outside and wood on the inside. The main bedroom in most apartments will come with an en suite.
Additional facilities will include a children's playroom and function room, a 371 sq m (4,000 sq ft) crèche and Montessori facility, post room, storage crate facilities and two jet washes. The development will also have its own leisure centre.
Hooke & MacDonald will be charging booking fees of €5,000 at this stage and a further €15,000 when contracts are completed within three weeks. The arrangement means that buyers will not have to pay the balance of the money for about two years. Spaces in the basement car-park will cost an extra €40,000.
