Bid made to buy out residents of block near Burlington

With the Burlington Hotel sold for €288 million, there is renewed interest in adjoining sites, writes Jack Fagan

Forty owners of a high value apartment block to the rear of the Burlington Hotel in Dublin 2, including the former EU commissioner Padraig Flynn, have been offered €800,000 and a free apartment in the same area if they agree to sell.

The offer was made to the residents of Burleigh Court 1 by Martin Waldron, a Dublin quantity surveyor, who says he is not acting for a developer.

The five-storey block is next to the Allianz office building and its 1.5-acre site which was acquired earlier this year for €100 million by property developer Bernard McNamara.

Last Friday he also bought the Burlington Hotel for €288 million. Because he bought the company that owns the hotel, the deal may be subject to a latent taxation liability which, according to one bidder, could be over €30 million.

The Burleigh Court 1 residents were informed of the approach to buy out their interests at their annual meeting last week. The deal would only be done if it was accepted unanimously.

Flynn attended the meeting but did not apparently know in advance of the approach to buy the block.

A spokesperson told The Irish Times that the offer got "a cool reception from members and is unlikely to be a runner".

Waldron later described his approach as "an invitation for the residents to meet with me to discuss the option of exploring the possibility of placing the overall apartment complex on the market as a site zoned Z1".

He said that, while McNamara had significant property interests in the area and would therefore be a possible purchaser, he had no inside knowledge of whether McNamara would be interested in this site.

Any replacement apartments were to be sourced in the general vicinity of Dublin 4 to the satisfaction (if possible) of the current residents.

One of the apartments in Burleigh Court 1 was sold last year for €920,000, according to a resident. He said that, based on the price paid for the Allianz building, Burleigh Court 1 had an overall value of €70 million.

The five-storey apartment block was built by Finbar Holland in the 1970s and stands on a one-acre site with an abundance of car-parking spaces.

All 40 apartments are two or three-bedroom units with floor areas of 102-111sq m (1,100-1,200sq ft) which are considerably larger than most new units coming on the market. Virtually all of them are held by owner-occupiers who value the location, which is close to Donnybrook and Baggot Street, and is within walking distance of St Stephen's Green.

There are two other apartment blocks in the extensive grounds which have large areas in lawn, shrubs and car-parking. There are also eight houses along the boundary of the site, as well as a second office block also owned by Allianz.

The campus borders the Mespil flat complex where several developers are reported to have been buying up apartments with a long term view to redeveloping at least part of that site.

If McNamara has to pay the latent tax liability, the overall price will rise to €318 million for the 3.8-acre hotel site, the equivalent of €83 million an acre. This is considerably ahead of the average price of €54 million an acre paid by developer Sean Dunne for the seven acres of the Jurys and Berkeley Court sites in Ballsbridge. He also paid the equivalent of €56 million an acre for the 3.75 acres sold by AIB on Merrion Road.