2nd December (Issue 525)
Welcome to the Origin Capital Weekly Irish Property Review. This update is designed to provide you with a full recap of the latest property news from the media over the last seven days.
Industrial
Cookstown Industrial Estate, Dublin 24 Savills are quoting €2.5m for unit 9 on First Avenue, which extends to 19,919 sq. ft, of which 7,204 sq. ft are in offices. The building is being sold by Manning Construction, who has also been operating from the premises. According to Savills, it is the sole standing industrial building between 15,000-30,000 sq. ft available for sale in south Dublin. It is suitable for a wide variety of industrial uses and is zoned REGEN under the current South Dublin County Development Plan. It has a clear internal height of 6.1 metres and benefits from two roller shutter doors. It also shares a yard with its neighbour. Other businesses in the area include a strong mix of occupiers such as Phoenix Healthcare, Windsor Belgard and House of Padel. The estate is situated off the Belgard Road, providing ease of access to Junction 10 and 11 of the M50 and is within a 30-minute drive of Dublin city centre, the airport and Port Tunnel. The Irish Independent, 27th November
Hospitality
Cavan Town The O’Callaghan Family Group has taken ownership of the Hotel Kilmore in Cavan. While the price paid by the group to the 74-bedroom hotel’s outgoing owners, the Mealiff family, has not been disclosed, The Irish Times understands from market sources that the Kilmore secured €11m, or an average of €148,648 per key, in the off-market deal. Located in a high-profile position on the Dublin Road on the approach to Cavan town centre, the four-star hotel’s guest accommodation is complemented by the Annalee Restaurant and the Killykeen Bar. The hotel is a popular wedding banquet venue and also features two large conference suites and two smaller meeting suites. News of the transaction comes just over 16 months after the O’Callaghan Family Group completed its purchase of the 69-bedroom Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge. The group’s growing portfolio includes the Fairways Hotel and the Gateway Hotel in Dundalk, Co Louth. The Irish Times, 26th November
Oranmore, Co. Galway Connacht Hospitality Group has confirmed plans for what will be Galway’s first new five-star hotel in more than 20 years, as The Hawthorn by Galway Bay readies for opening in early 2026. The €60m development will combine a luxury hotel, a championship golf course and an experiential wellness spa. The project is rooted in a long-held vision by the late Christy O’Connor Jnr, who designed the original Galway Bay Golf Course in 1993 and envisaged the site as an international destination for golf and leisure. The Connacht Hospitality Group has spent the past decade assembling the land and assets required to redevelop the former Galway Bay Golf Resort. The Business Post, 28th November
Townsend Street, Dublin 2 A seven-storey, 434-bed hostel development has been granted planning permission at an “eyesore” location on Townsend Street. Planning permission was sought by ORHRE Management Services Limited for the 97 shared room development at a long-derelict site at the corner of Lombard Street East. The Guinness sign on 114 Townsend Street remains the only indication of its previous life as the Countess Markievicz pub. The structure of both buildings is largely intact, but number 112, once the Grand pub, is largely vacant. The site is now set for partial demolition, but the facade at 114 Townsend Street is to be retained. The new hostel rooms will be a mixture of two- to 10-bed units amounting to 434 beds for tourist use, with the addition of a ground-floor cafe and kitchen in the building, which will rise to as much as seven storeys. The upper two floors will be set back. DCC approved the development last week. A sum of €357,399 is required to be paid to the council as a development contribution, with a further €131,575 to be paid as the development is within the catchment area for the Luas docklands contribution scheme. The Irish Times, 1st December
Retail
Nationwide Soaring fit-out costs are making it hard to justify growing in Ireland, according to Curry’s Ireland, which already operates 16 stores across the country. The company has invested over €2m in recent years, enhancing its stores as it pursues a strategy of sweating more from its assets. A spokesman stated that “with the inflation that is there, it is just hard to see the payback in the short-term. It is well north of €1.5m to fit out a store to the Currys’ standard.” The Irish Independent, 25th November
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Blackrock, Co. Dublin Vincent Finnegan is offering a high-profile residential site for sale by tender at a guide price of €6m. Located on Newtownpark Avenue and just 50 metres from the N11 quality bus corridor, the subject property, which extends to 1.6 acres, comprises two houses – Selandia and the Paddock – and an afterschool centre known as the Willow House Afterschool. The subject site is zoned Objective A under the terms of the DLRCC Development Plan 2022-2028. This objective supports residential development and residential amenities. The subject site is for sale by tender with the final date for receipt of tenders set for Friday, January 30th, 2026. The Irish Times, 19th November
Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Brian M Durkan Ltd is understood to have paid over the €5.25m guide price for a site close to the waterfront in Dún Laoghaire. Fitzwilliam Real Estate group (“FRE”) had secured full planning permission for 74 build-to-rent apartments on the site on Crofton Road located to the rear of St Michael’s Hospital which has been accommodating a car park and a two-storey house. The price for the 0.8 acre site was the equivalent of about €6.5m per acre which was the highest price per acre paid in Dublin during the third quarter of this year. The selling agent was Knight Frank. The approved scheme will have uninterrupted views across Dún Laoghaire harbour and have a number of amenities on its own site including a gym, and social and co-working areas. Its existing planning approval consists of a mix of 55 one-bedroom units and 19 two-bedroom units along with one commercial cafe unit over two buildings with heights ranging from part four to eight storeys. FRE had previously offered it for sale in 2019 with an asking price of €6.5m even though at the time it did not have the planning permission. FRE had also submitted an alternative strategic housing development application for 102 rental apartments and An Coimisiún Pleanála’s website showed no decision on that application by the time we went to press. The Irish Independent, 20th November
Celbridge, Co. Kildare The state has purchased around 235 acres of land surrounding the Castletown House estate for €11.25m, €4m more than it was valued at two months ago. The Office of Public Works (OPW) already owned the house itself and about 237 acres of the surrounding landscape. Minister of State at the OPW, Kevin Moran, said the agreed purchase price was supported by a business case as well as a report from Lisney, who advised in September of this year that the market value of the lands was between €7.25m and €7.5m. The lands are set to be conserved and managed as a heritage amenity, and a plan for this will be drawn up alongside Kildare County Council. The Business Post, 19th November
Cork University College Cork is to review its extensive land and property bank to identify which if any of its sites surplus to requirement might be suitable for housing/rezoning. UCC is among the 119 applications this month to Cork City Council’s call under the National Planning Framework for additional residential lands, to accelerate housing delivery. The dozens of applications span city core and fringe area, including from the likes of Cairn Homes at Lotamore, JCD Group off the Mallow Road, Jacobs Engineering for a site in Mahon, along with a raft of house builders and landowners, for tracts of land, from infill to some in excess of 100 acres on all corners of the city boundary. UCC employs over 3,000 people and has expansive land assets, including at Curraheen, North Mall and the city centre, spanning some 86 hectares, with over three million square feet of built structures over approx. 150 buildings. The Examiner, 21st November
Other
Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow TWM has been engaged by Avondale Forest Park’s custodian, Coillte, to seek expressions of interest from parties looking to enter into a long-term ground lease for the development of between 40 and 50 guest cabins (subject to planning permission) within the grounds of the park’s 494 acre estate. Located just 1.5km south of the village of Rathdrum, Avondale Forest Park was Coillte’s most popular site in 2024, with almost 340,000 visits. The estate was acquired by the Irish government in 1904 and became home to Ireland’s first forestry school. In 2022, Coillte opened its flagship visitor attraction, Beyond the Trees Avondale, featuring a 700-metre Treetop Walk, and a 12-storey viewing tower with giant slide. In 2023, Coillte completed a refurbishment of Charles Stewart Parnell’s birthplace, the historic Avondale House, further enhancing the location’s reputation as a leading visitor attraction. The Irish Times, 26th November
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