Hardwicke pays £12m for site in docklands

Hardwicke, the Dublin property development company, has paid the equivalent of £12 million for a site of 1.33 acres at Ringsend, Dublin 6. It is likely to be used for a mixed development of offices and apartments. The company has also paid close to £4.3 million for an adjoining three-storey office block of 10,000 sq ft which dates from the 1950s and is listed for preservation.

About half a dozen developers were in competition for both properties, which were sold by tender in a single lot on behalf of Eircom. The sale underlines the steadily increasing value of sites in the Dublin docklands where most of the office and residential developments are to be concentrated over the next two decades.

The price Hardwicke paid for the Ringsend Road site is still on the low side compared with the £8 million secured two weeks ago for a half-acre site at City Quay, opposite the International Financial Services Centre. That site will be used entirely for offices whereas the new Hardwicke land will accommodate between 75,000 sq ft and 100,000 sq ft of offices and between 100 and 150 apartments.

Mark Kavanagh of Hardwicke said yesterday it had paid "a good price so we will have to work hard to ensure that we get a good return from it". It was an exceptionally fine site with frontage on to a main road on one side and Grand Canal Quay on the other.

Hardwicke is hoping to get planning permission and begin construction work by next autumn. A 22-acre site closer to the city centre between Pearse Street and the city quays is also earmarked for a mixed scheme but cannot be developed until it has been decontaminated by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

About three years ago, Hardwicke also surprised the market when it paid a record £6.2 million for a one-acre office site with frontage on to Hatch Street and Adelaide Road. The company has since built two blocks of 90,000 sq ft which have attracted top rents. The first block on Hatch Street rented at £27.50 per sq ft, while the second building made between £33 and £34 per sq ft. Hardwicke plans to retain ownership of both blocks, which are producing a rental income of over £2.5 million per annum.

Stephen Cassidy of Hamilton Osborne King handled the sale of the Ringsend properties.