The owners of the Powerscourt Town House shopping centre in Dublin have paid in the region of €22 million for the Bank of Ireland branch which extends from Suffolk Street to College Green in the city centre.
The building, one of the largest of its kind in the city, will be leased to a single retail operator when it is refurbished early next year. The likelihood is that it will operate mainly as an Irish interest store aimed primarily at the tourist market. It is directly opposite the Dublin Tourism office in St Andrew's church.
Clarendon Properties Group, headed by Tony Leonard and Dan O'Sullivan, were the highest of eight bidders for the building which is directly opposite the landmark 18th century Bank of Ireland. The underbidders are thought to have included Treas- ury Holdings, Cosgrave Property Group and Green Property Co.
The bank is composed of two distinctly different buildings, one a large 19th century double height banking hall fronting on to College Green and, at the rear, a 1960s building fronting on to Suffolk Street. The bank is to retain part of this frontage for a smaller branch. The building has over 60,000 sq ft of floor space including about 16,000 on the ground floor. Apart from the Powerscourt Centre, Clarendon also owns two retail centres in Cork, the Savoy Centre and Queen's Old Castle. It also has a number of retail investments in London. The selling agents were C B Hamilton Osbourne King and Insignia Richard Ellis Gunne.
