THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs spent almost $1.3 million when refurbishing the New York apartment of the Irish Ambassador to the United Nations in 2007 and 2008.
The project cost a total of €829,540 (or $1,290,000 on March 2008 exchange rates) for the apartment on 1 East End Avenue in mid-town Manhattan, on the upper East Side of Manhattan. The department said this week that it did not consider the costs to be exceptional, given prices related to property in New York are among the most expensive in the world.
The second biggest item of expenditure was providing temporary accommodation for the then Ambassador John Paul Kavanagh and his family, which cost $271,133 (€174,250) for the nine-month period during which the residence was being refurbished. The spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said that the temporary accommodation bill – which works out at slightly over $30,000 per month (€19,361) – was not excessive in the context of New York and reflected the costs of renting a suitable family apartment in mid-town Manhattan, which is one of the most expensive locations in the world.
The cost also included the cost of renting furniture for the nine months as the apartment was unfurnished when the letting agreement was made, he said.
The details of the refurbishment have been obtained by The Irish Times on foot of a Freedom of Information request.
The breakdown of the other costs were: building work $555,289 (€356,870); fixtures and fittings $201,595 (€129,560); furniture $139,370 (€89,570); household items $26,063 (€16,750); professional fees $97,156 (€62,440).
The spokesman said that the department did not consider the cost to be exceptional, saying that “in New York, any kind of work does not come cheaply”.
The apartment at East End Avenue is located at one of the most prestigious and expensive addresses in New York.
It was valued at €10 million in 2007 and its current estimated value after the refurbishment is €11 million, according to Foreign Affairs. That makes it the third most expensive overseas property owned by the Irish State, after the Villa Spada in Rome (worth more than €25 million) and the Irish Embassy in Paris (also worth €25 million). By comparison, the residence of the Irish Ambassador to the United States in Washington is worth €4 million. Mr Kavanagh is now the Irish Ambassador to France.
The East End Avenue residence is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan overlooking the East River and Roosevelt Island. The building, which has 33 apartments, was built in 1929 and bought by the Irish State 50 years ago in 1949. Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, is on the northern end of the Avenue.
The residence has been used widely for entertaining and is considered by Foreign Affairs to be a major “selling point” for the Irish permanent mission to the UN.
“This is the first major refurbishment of the residence in many years, certainly 20 to 30 years,” said the spokesman.
He said that the building work included a total replacement of the air-conditioning unit which was unsafe. That entailed major construction work on walls, floors and the ceiling. Separately, there was also a major issue with the ceiling.
The spokesman said the high costs associated with furniture and fittings arose because there was a complete refit of the residence. Many of the existing pieces of furniture were between 40-50 years old.