Estate agents are forecasting intense competition between developers for two important sites in Dublin and Waterford which are to be sold by tender in May. Lisney expects to secure in excess of £12 million for nine acres beside Nutgrove Shopping Centre, at Whitehall Road East, Church town, Dublin 14.
In Waterford city, O'Shea O'Toole and Partners and Hamilton Osborne King is quoting over £10 million for a waterfront site of 12 acres on the North Quays. The Churchtown site is being sold by Avonmore Waterford Estates and is easily the best development opportunity to have come on the Dublin market this year. Although a large part of the site is currently covered in industrial buildings, the new owners will obviously look at a mixed residential and commercial scheme because of the location in a mature residential area of Rathfarnham and Churchtown. The land has frontage on to Whitehall Road East, close to the junction with Nutgrove Avenue. In addition to the site, Avonmore Waterford Estates will also be selling the leasehold interest in a site of just over half an acre which has 84 car-parking spaces and which is held under a 30-year lease.
Ross Shorten of Lisney said it has already logged a long list of inquiries about the site because it has been generally known for the past year that it would be going for sale. An additional benefit was that the land had a rear access on to Whitebarn Road.
The Waterford site has even more potential because of its superb location in the city centre. The planners have indicated that they will allow a development of the same height as the existing silos, suggesting that the new buildings could possibly have 11 or 12 storeys.
The 12 acres are currently divided by a site of four acres owned by the IAWS, which is also expected to be offered for sale shortly. The 12 acres are being sold by the docks board and the proceeds are to be reinvested in new wharf facilities. The selling agents said a wide range of uses will be permitted but residential and leisure, including a hotel, are likely to dominate a redevelopment scheme.
O Shea O'Toole said the site is in such a strategic location, effectively within the central core of the city, that the redevelopment will create a critical mass with far reaching benefits for Waterford.
The developers are likely to make maximum use of the extensive river frontage where the wharf facilities have been used by cruise liners visiting the port.
