€5.5m for block with potential in Dublin 4

A high-profile office block going for sale at the junction of Upper Grand Canal Street and Clanwilliam Place in Dublin 4 might well be redeveloped as an apartment scheme when it is sold by private treaty.

Ashling Ó Buchalla of agents JLL is quoting €5.5 million for Grand Canal House which is producing a short-term income of €281,118 and has residential zoning which would allow it to be replaced by a development of apartments or a hotel.

The four-storey office building was funded in the mid-1990s by IPFPUT for the now defunct Cambridge Finance. It was subsequently acquired by Liam Carroll's Danninger and sold as part of the Ulysses Portfolio by Nama.

The 25 mixed-use properties in the portfolio were bought for €155 million by Pimco and Brehon Capital.

Grand Canal House has an overall floor area of 1,535sq m (16,524sq ft) and 15 surface car parking spaces to the rear.

It is currently fully occupied on short-term leases and as none of the tenants have acquired any long-term rights, vacant possession will be available in 2015.

The tenants currently occupying the block include Aecon, McSweeney solicitors, Cafico International, Dunloe Management, Treacy Consulting and Monti Consulting. Aecom Ltd is paying the highest proportion of the rent, €114,176, for 545sq m (5,866sq ft) on the ground floor.

Grand Canal House occupies a prominent corner position around the corner from Google’s headquarters on Barrow Street.

Both facilities are within a few minutes’ walk of the Luas Green line.