Dame Street corner in Dublin has quirky mix at €1.9m

A substantial retail and office building along a particularly busy city centre stretch in Dublin 2 is likely to be refurbished or redeveloped when it is sold shortly by private treaty.

Agents HWBC are guiding in excess of €1.9million for Shamrock Chambers, a five storey over basement building at the junction of Dame Street and Eustace Street which includes two rented shops at street level and four largely vacant upper floors.

Shamrock Chambers has a high visibility from South Great George's Street and College Green and backs on to Temple Bar in an area with an electric mix of restaurants, bars, hotels and theatres. The College Green/Dame Street area is due to undergo major changes as part of a planned traffic management shake up.

The building extends to 1,167.5sq m (12,567sq ft) and includes two shops on Dame Street rented by Crackbird restaurant and Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. Only one of the office units of less than 92.9sq m (1,000sq ft) is occupied but all the remaining units as well as an apartment on the third floor are vacant.

The current rental income is €123,400 per annum.

Access to the upper floors is provided via a separate entrance on Eustace Street. The entrance has a manually operated cage lift with surrounding solid staircase. The lift figured in the 1996 film Michael Collins, where Julia Roberts, playing Kitty Kiernan, is seen using the cage lift. The lift is now listed as a protected structure by Dublin City Council.

Sharon Walsh of HWBC says she is expecting considerable interest in what was a particularly spacious building in the heart of Dublin city centre.

With the upper floors predominantly vacant, new owners would have an opportunity to upgrade or redevelop the facilities in order to substantially increase the rental income.