Private Irish investors closing in on €16m deal for Dublin’s Dawson Hotel

A group of private Irish investors is closing in on the purchase of the Dawson Hotel on Dawson Street in Dublin city centre.

The consortium involving Barry McGrath, a former global partner with law firm Maples & Calder, is understood to have agreed a deal to acquire the property at 35/36 Dawson Street for about €16 million. The figure represents a 9 per cent discount on the €17.5 million price Alexandra Sheeran of CBRE had been guiding when she brought the property to the market on behalf of its current owner, Tetrarch Capital, last January.

While CBRE declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Irish Times, it is understood the hotel’s incoming owners intend to renovate and reopen the hotel. It is also likely that they will seek to increase the property’s current room count of 36 to 44 through the conversion of the building’s existing spa facility.

Once the hotel is ready for business, the consortium is expected to engage the services of a number of parties to operate its guest rooms and bar and restaurant facilities. Prior to its closure, the Dawson Hotel had been home to the famed La Stampa restaurant and Sam’s late-night bar. The property occupies a prime location directly across from the Mansion House on what is widely regarded as one of Dublin city centre’s foremost streets.

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The Dawson Hotel came for sale after Tetrarch Capital abandoned its own plan last year to pursue the development of a new hotel in partnership with the Royal Irish Automobile Club (RIAC).

The plan, first revealed in late 2017, involved the redevelopment of the buildings at 33-36 Dawson Street and several properties to the rear. Had it gone ahead, it would have delivered a significant upgrade to facilities at the RIAC club at 33-34 Dawson Street, including a new members’ restaurant, bar, reading room, meeting rooms, offices for the RIAC and Motorsport Ireland, a new location for the Club’s Guinness Seagrave Library and a 61-space car park.

It would also have allowed Tetrarch, via an entity called Miro Hotel 2 Ltd, to develop a new 117-bedroom hotel on the site. The hotel was to have been operated by Tetrarch with the RIAC brand in its name.

Two planning applications were lodged for the development, with permission for the scheme received by Miro from Dublin City Council in March 2020.

While the development budget had been set at €26.5 million, excluding VAT, prior to the arrival of Covid-19, inflation costs and delays due to the pandemic had pushed the bill up by 51 per cent to more than €40 million by the beginning of 2022. The plan was shelved in February of last year.

Outside of its ownership of the Dawson Hotel, Tetrarch’s investment portfolio includes the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, the Mount Juliet estate in Kilkenny and Howth Castle in north Dublin.