Around the block: Bailey to begin work on Anglesea Road site

With new development virtually at a standstill for more than six years, luxury apartments to buy in the upmarket Dublin 4 area are as rare as hens’ teeth. Never one to miss the opportunity to cater to the needs of a surplus of cash buyers, developer Tom Bailey is likely to begin building in the coming weeks on the Anglesea Road site in Ballsbridge he has been trying to get off the ground since 2005.

And this time it looks like it might just happen. Bailey, who with his brother Michael, was disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years last year on foot of findings of fraud and misconduct at their company Bovale Developments, will be operating in a private capacity when he starts work on his Dunluce site on Anglesea Road. It’s envisaged the planned 25 apartments will come on the market in spring 2015.

The development originally received planning for 36 apartments, this was reduced to 29 apartments in 2009, and now following a further change in conditions it will comprise a series of 25 two-bed apartments and penthouses arranged over four blocks, the tallest rising to seven storeys, and smallest to three storeys.

Bailey was not available for comment, but it’s understood he is working with Nama on the luxury scheme which is likely to cost about €13 million to build. Bovale’s loans were transferred to Nama in 2010 and since that date the brothers have been working with the State agency to keep their business afloat.

In 2005 Bailey paid a breathtaking €6.2 million at auction for Dunluce, a detached, five-bedroom house on about an acre with grounds running down to the Dodder. It shares an entrance with Somerset, an Edwardian detached five-bed also owned by Bailey which he bought in 1998 for about €900,000. Work will begin on the enlarged site of about 1.25 acres with the demolition of Dunluce. Somerset will continue to operate as a rental on the reduced site.