Prominent petrol station sites from €3.5m

RedevelopmentSites: The ongoing rationalisation of petrol filling stations - because of the high value of the sites and the tight profit margins on fuel sales - continues this week with the announcement that three further facilities in the greater Dublin area are to go for sale.

The company which recently acquired Shell's retail business in Ireland is to offload the Ashurst filling station on the Stillorgan Road and other sites in Harolds Cross and Greystones village. Hamilton Osborne King is to sell the properties by tender at the end of May.

The agency is quoting a guide price of €10 million for the Ashurst filling station which occupies a site of 0.28 of a hectare (0.69 of an acre) between Booterstown Avenue and Mount Merrion Avenue. A feasibility study has shown that, with residential zoning already in place, the site could accommodate 46 apartments. A selling price of €10 million would work out at a cost, before stamp duty, of €217,391 for each of the 46 apartments. HOK says that such a density can be expected after the planners recently granted permission for 48 apartments on a smaller, adjoining site which was formerly used as a headquarters by MC O'Sullivan Engineering.

Donal Kelleher of HOK predicted that the site sale will attract strong interest because of the premium prices being paid for apartments in the area, notably at Thornwood on Booterstown Avenue and by Glenkerrin Homes at The Grange in Stillorgan.

HOK has set a guide price of €3.5 million for the filling station on Parnell Road in Harolds Cross which fronts on to the Grand Canal, directly opposite Griffith College. The site of 0.17 of a hectare (0.41 of an acre) could accommodate 24 apartments, according to a study. Such a selling price would equate to €145,833 per unit.

There will undoubtedly be considerable interest in the Greystones filling station which is located in the centre of the village at the junction of Church Road and Victoria Road. The site of 0.27 of a hectare (0.67 of an acre) is zoned "to provide for local district centre activities and permits residential development". HOK says that the plot could accommodate 500sq m (5,382sq ft) of retail space and 28 apartments. The guide price in this case is €3.75 million.