Green light for Dalkey development

Developers Wesley Curran and Graham O'Donnell have been given approval by An Bord Pleanála for a €50 million development on a site close to the centre of Dalkey in south Co Dublin.

The 2.2-acre site surrounding Santa Maria, once the family home of the Jacobs family on the lower slopes of Dalkey Hill, is just two minutes from the centre of the village and boasts marine views.

The duo paid just under €10 million for the property at auction in June 2005, and have drawn up a sensitive scheme which maximises the site's special location and retains the old house and a 186sq m (2,002sq ft) coach-house.

Overall the new elements of the development will comprise 24 units, including 10 detached new homes, five mews houses and nine apartments. Three of the apartments are to be penthouses and most of the new homes will have sea views.

The new development on the property is to be called Enderley after the original name of the property when it belonged to the Jacobs family.

The house was also featured in the film adaption of Hugh Leonard's Da, as Leonard's father had worked there as a gardener.

The house is to be refurbished and sold on a substantial 0.6-acre site, leaving a generous 1.6 acres for the remaining houses and apartments.

One of the big selling factors is bound to be the convenient location, which is within two minutes of Dalkey Dart station and all that the centre of Dalkey has to offer.

Individual prices are not yet available but Dublin agents, such as Lisney and Douglas Newman Good, have estimated the value of the development in the region of €50 million, which would give an average of €2 million per home.

Given that the more expensive element, Santa Maria, is likely to make substantially more than that - and perhaps even the detached homes and penthouses - the apartments may well represent very interesting value for money.

"It is a very nice site and the views are really breath-taking, we believe it will be a really nice scheme," said Curran.

Curran's Otranto Properties is also busy in the Dalkey area having recently applied for permission to demolish Mackey's Garden Centre on Castlepark Road. He is seeking to build 56 apartments in two four-storey buildings on the 1.4-acre site.

These would be 18 one-bedroom units, 32 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units, and a single storey leisure building with a gym and 16-metre swimming pool. There would also be underground car-parking for 86 cars with access from Castlepark Road via electronic gates.