The former Redwood Lodge guesthouse and associated mews buildings in the heart of Dublin 4 will undergo a major redevelopment as part of recently submitted plans.
The properties, comprising two handsome semidetached four-storey houses and two mews houses, were offered for sale in 2014 on the instructions of receivers Kavanagh Fennell seeking €4 million. That price was substantially exceeded when Donnybrook resident Damien Tansey paid €5.5 million in total for the prime Ballsbridge development opportunity.
Plans have been submitted for one of the two semidetached houses, 80 Merrion Road; plans for adjoining 78 Merrion Road are likely to be similar.
Number 80 is to be extended to 430sq m (4,630sq ft) and fully refurbished as a single residence. Living and reception rooms at the ground and first floors will include a first-floor orangery; the upper two floors will have five bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Number 76 is a near-identical semidetached property. It was bought for about €1.5 million, in 2013, by Australian designer Karen Barrett Baral, who renovated the house and flipped it for more than €2.5 million, in June 2015. These houses will have smaller rear gardens but will offer more conventional layouts.
To the rear of numbers 78 and 80 are two dilapidated mews houses fronting on to Spafield Terrace. These buildings are set to be demolished to make way for a four-storey over-basement apartment block comprising nine apartments. Eleven parking spaces and residents’ storage rooms are to be provided at basement level.
Seven of the 12 apartments in Rexdon Court, a development situated just a few metres away from this new scheme, were sold last year with prices achieved ranging from €690,000 for a ground-floor three-bedroom apartment to €1.275 million for the block’s only penthouse.
