UK firm applies for 198 apartments and office block in Santry

Santry looks set for a major new development following an application for planning permission at Northwood Business Campus by Westhill UK, a property development and asset management company, that acquired two neighbouring sites in recent months for more than €10 million.

The proposed development, to be built in two phases, comprises 198 apartments and a 2,638 sq m office block.

Westhill's sites are in close proximity to the Cosgrave Property Group's Bridgefield scheme, also in Northwood, where construction of 216 apartments is due to complete by the end of 2019. The veteran developer is seeking to sell the apartments in a single lot as a private rented sector investment, a strategy it successfully adopted previously at Honeypark in Dun Laoghaire when it sold more than 500 apartments to investors SW3 Capital, Tristan Capital Partners and Patrizia.

It is not known whether Westhill plans to obtain planning and sell the site, either way by of a straight site sale or through a forward funding arrangement, or if it intends to complete the development for rent or sale of individual units. Westhill previously acquired a site in Glasnevin, secured planning permission for a residential development and resold it for nearly €18 million, representing a profit on cost of about 51 per cent.

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Development hot spot

The apartment blocks at Santry would comprise a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bed

apartments, along with facilities such as a hot desk area, roof gardens, café, childcare facility and concierge desk. The residential element of the development would feature 208 parking spaces, all located at surface or ground floor podium level – with no basement car parking.

In the 1990s, Woodford Developments spent about four years assembling the 200-plus acre Santry Demesne and obtaining planning permission for a number of major developments. While Woodford's Northwood campus was predominantly finished prior to the property market's collapse, and includes an array of residential schemes, offices and hotels, a number of key sites laid idle.

Northwood has become a development hot spot recently, as the property market continues to heat up, and the build-out of the Westhill and Cosgrave sites will finally bring about the completion of the campus two decades after Santry Demesne was rezoned in 1998, enabling the Northwood development.

Residents and property owners in the Northwood campus are apparently pleased at the prospect of seeing the estate complete, as it appears no objections were submitted in respect of Westhill's applications during the period of observation allowed by Fingal County Council, in spite of the very large scale of the proposal.