Set high above the capital with sweeping views across Dublin Bay, Knockrabo, on Dublin 14’s Mount Anville Road, is a scheme by Maplewood Residential that has been hotly anticipated by southside buyers at the luxury end.
Named after the Victorian house that once stood on the lands, the elevated site is situated directly across the road from Mount Anville Secondary School, one of Dublin’s most prestigious private girls’ schools.
Maplewood Residential, owned by Michael Whelan snr and operated by Michael Whelan jnr, purchased the 20-acre site with equity partner Broadhaven Credit Partners for more than €25 million in 2016. Some 47 A-rated homes will be ready for sale this calendar year, with 23 three-, four- and five-bed houses launching on Thursday.
An apartment scheme of 51 one-, two- and three-bed apartments will begin in the autumn, and the site will ultimately accommodate nearly 200 houses and apartments.
Before a single sod could be turned on the site, the developers had to give the local wildlife its notice to quit. This required bat surveys of all the trees and old buildings, and the managing of any tree-felling on the land. In addition to complying with ecology reports, Whelan jnr also consulted individually with every neighbour in order to hear and assuage any concerns they had.
He says he now knows them all by name and is still liaising with them on the height of dividing walls between their properties and the new homes, and consulting with them on the positioning of specimen trees designed to give further privacy.
Of the 23 homes launching today, there are 13 semi-detached houses of two-and-a-half storeys in height, with a master bedroom privately located on the first-floor return. Of these, eight are five-beds of 207sq m/2,228sq ft, with an asking price from €920,000, and three are four-beds of 152sq m/1,636sq ft, asking from €810,000.
There are a further seven detached properties. All are two-storey and are proving popular with down-traders who don’t want to navigate more than one set of stairs, says Gina Kennedy, associate director at DNG New Homes, the selling agent for the scheme.
Interior designer Helen Turkington liaised with architects O’Mahony Pike and Michael Whelan on the design and layout of every house type, tweaking the original plans based on feedback from house viewers and even moving the kitchens in some units to create a better sense of flow between the rooms.
Five of the detached houses are three-bed units ranging in size from 131 to 134sq m/1,410 to 1,442sq ft, with prices from €785,000. There are two four-bed detached units, from 152 to 156sq m/1,636 to 1,679sq ft, asking from €875,000.
There will also be seven terraced houses, all with two and a half storeys and four bedrooms. The mid-terrace units have 164sq m/1,765sq ft of space, asking from €775,000, while end-of-terrace units are very slightly larger, with prices from €800,000.
The houses in phase one will carry an initial annual management fee of €600. When the development is complete this will rise to €1,000 to include on-site facitilities and bin charges.
The firm is currently renovating the gate lodge, and Bushy Park Ironworks has been engaged to restore the imposing front gates and the pedestrian and cycle entrance to the development.
Six acres of the 20-acre site have been reserved for the planned extension of the Eastern Bypass (from Sandyford to St Helen’s in Booterstown), although Whelan says he doesn’t expect to see this happen in his lifetime. The Eastern Bypass is not included in the draft City Development Plan 2016 – 2022. Submissions on the plan are currently being analysed by city councillors and a decision will be made in May as to whether the Eastern Bypass objective will be included in further consultation rounds in the summer.
A further two acres have been set aside as green space and concentrated around the specimen trees and the parkland setting of Cedarmount House. Subject to planning, there are plans to create a shared facility within the restored original house, to include a gym, a library and possibly a creche.
Knockrabo is the third prominent city site to have been bought and developed by the Maplewood/Broadhaven partnership. The others are Sion Hill in Drumcondra, which launched in April 2015 and where 68 of its 69 units are now sold, and Dodderbrook in Ballycullen, where 89 units out of 135 are also sold. The remaining 46 will be released later this spring.
Talking Turkington: definite designs
Civil engineer Michael Whelan jnr of Maplewood Residential engaged leading interior designer Helen Turkington for the Knockrabo scheme after he had seen her work on his Dublin 6 home.
Fresh from one of her many visits to Paris, Turkington had a very firm idea of how the homes should look and feel, Whelan recalls.
“The original floor plans for the A-rated houses didn’t include chimneys, but she insisted on installing false chimney breasts to give the livingrooms a centrepiece,” he says.
She also requested the raising of ceiling and door heights, the expansion of the size of the entrance halls and the use of brass socket and light fixtures, as well as nuanced lighting schemes such as the lighting sconces in the hall and stairwell.
Turkington also sought panelling for the walls throughout the show homes, a costly exercise. Whelan, always with an eye for the bottom line, compromised instead by decorating many of the walls with “planted-on beadwork”, whereby wood pieces made to look like frames are set on to the walls and, when painted, look like the real thing (though more cost-effective to implement). While not part of the baseline asking price, the panelling effect can be included for an additional cost.
Turkington also sought a guest toilet “with wow factor”, something Whelan admits the firm would have totally ignored.
“You want the room to feel warm and luxurious, with flattering lighting to make guests look good,” Turkington says. “The fact that we were able to work on these houses from the drawing stage meant that we were able to put the radiators in the right place, reposition windows where necessary and put the light and plug sockets where they should be.”
Turkington’s signature greys of previous seasons are nowhere to be seen at Knockrabo. Instead, she has opted for deep and restful blocks of colour: olive green in the kitchen; a deep marine blue in the guest WC; and a delightfully offbeat shade of mauve in the library that just radiates warmth. (This last colour, Florrie’s Pink, is named after one of Turkington’s children, who, she clarifies, hates pink.)
