The Irish Times Propertysupplement writers wind back the clock to review the best property deals of the past 20 years
POINT DEPOT 1988:CIÉ sold the 15-acre Point Depot to businessman Harry Crosbie for £750,000 (€952,500) in 1988. The site is now being redeveloped to accommodate the 15,000-seat O2 concert venue, 12 cinemas, 150 shops, 23,225sq m (250,000sq ft) of offices and a new Luas station.
SWEEPSTAKES CENTRE:Back in 1990 UK developer Roy Strudwick paid £6.6 million (€8.3 million) for the 11-acre headquarters of the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes in Ballsbridge. Two years later he sold on 5.5 acres to the Cosgrave brothers for around £5 million (€6.35 million). They built 255 apartments and houses in a difficult market. Strudwick developed three office blocks and a motor showrooms on the site.
JERVIS HOSPITAL:In 1992 then newcomer Paddy McKillen swooped on the 2.85-acre Jervis Hospital site in Jervis Street, paying £4.5 million (€5.71 million). The site was later granted urban renewal tax status and the shopping centre he built there is now producing a rental income of over €20 million and has a value of more than €400 million.
ST HELEN'S:The Christian Brothers sold the 71-acre St Helen's Estate at Booterstown, Co Dublin, in 1988 for over £5 million (€6.35 million). The purchaser, Ken Rohan, flipped on the property almost a year later for £15 million (€19.05m) to a consortium led by Sean Dunne. Dunne developed housing on most of the site and he and his partners sold St Helen's House to Cosgrave Homes before it was redeveloped into the Radisson St Helen's Hotel.
MERRION STREET:In 1992 Merrion Street was just another down at heel Georgian enclave. So much so that it was hard to find buyers when the Government offered numbers 21, 22, 23 and 24 Merrion Street - the former Land Commission offices - for sale. It sold the lot for just over £3.2 million (€4.06 million). The sale included a quarter-acre site at the rear. That same year five other adjoining houses opposite Government Buildings, numbers 25 to 29, were bought for £810,000 (€1,028,700) by a company led by Sean McElligott. A solicitor bought four smaller houses, numbers 30 to 33, for £500,000 (€635,000).
JOHNSTON MOONEY O'BRIEN:The controversial 5.6-acre site in the centre of Ballsbridge was sold at auction in 1993 for £5.6 million (€7.11 million). Developers Sean McKeon, the late John Kennedy and the McSharry brothers of Sheelin MacSharry went on to build 300 apartments now known as Park Lane as well as a 130-bedroom hotel and a 5,574sq m (60,000sq ft) office block. The developers kept back 100 flats for themselves.
SHERIFF STREET FLATS:Dublin City Council sold the Sheriff Street flats complex on 5.3 acres for less than £4 million (€5.08 million) in 1995. Chesterbridge Developments - then controlled by Paul Newman, Mick Whelan and Paul Hanby - built about 600 apartments and 18 retail units at Custom House Square and is reputed to have made a profit of around €65 million on the tax-driven scheme.
GASWORKS:In 1996 Liam Carroll of Zoe Developments paid £8 million (€10.1m) for the 7.8-acre Gasworks site at Barrow Street, off Grand Canal Street, in Dublin 4. Dublin's most prolific builder has since completed over 500 apartments and 9,290sq m (100,000sq ft) of offices rented to Google.
QUINTO DO LAGO:In 1998 businessman Denis O'Brien bought the prestigious Quinto do Lago leisure complex in the Algarve region of Portugal for about £25 million. The property included four 18-hole golf courses, a five-star hotel, a large number of luxury villas and sites. Building work continues to this day in what's become one of Europe's most fashionable resorts.
Dundrum Town Centre:In 1999 the Dundrum Town Centre was but a gleam in developer Joe O'Reilly's eye. He bought the former Pye factory lands for £10 million (€12.7 million). The new Dundrum Town Centre is now producing a rental income of over €100 million and even before the second phase gets under way, it is valued at over €1 billion.
FARMLEIGH:Back in 1999 the Government paid £23 million for Farmleigh, the Guinness family seat in Ireland on 78 acres in the Phoenix Park. It is now a State guesthouse.
THE PAVILIONS SWORDS:In 2001 Eircom Pension Fund, advised by Irwin Druker of Druker Fanning, agreed to pre-fund the development of the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords at a cost of £85 million (€107 million). In the summer of 2006 the fund sold the centre to Joe O'Reilly and two funds for €575 million.
Shrewsbury Road:Businessman Des McElvaddy set a new record for a house price in Dublin in the summer of 1996 when he paid £1.55 million (€1.9 million) for Pitcairn on Shrewsbury Road in Ballsbridge. Another house on the same road, Walford, made €58 million in 2005.
