UK firm plans new student lodgings on Dublin quays
UK student accommodation provider Ziggurat is planning its latest development in Dublin – a 261-bed project on Dublin’s Arran Quay.
The multi-million euro scheme would be located on the site of a former Nolans Seafood facility.
Ziggurat has spent more than
€400m buying sites in Ireland in recent years, and has already built student accommodation schemes in Dublin and is planning its first in Galway.
The company has engaged with An Bord Pleanála in connection with the planned project on Arran Quay as part of a consultation under the Housing Act 2017.
Student accommodation projects in Ireland have attracted intense international interest in recent years.
In 2016, Ziggurat acquired sites in Ireland with plans to build as many as
4,000 student accommodation units. It bought a site on Dublin’s Upper Dominic St, just off Bolton St, in the north inner city, with plans for a 380bed facility. Students will be able to travel by Luas to the new DIT campus at Grangegorman, and also to Trinity College. Another site, on the capital’s North Circular Road, will have 420 student beds.
Last year, Zuggurat acquired the Westwood Hotel in Galway, with plans to use the site for a 394-bed student accommodation premises.
While it was initially expected that construction would get under way this summer, the hotel is now likely to continue operating until the autumn. Plans for the scheme have been recently lodged with An Bord Pleanála.
Last year, Ziggurat sold a student residence it had developed close to UCD which was formerly the Montrose Hotel, to US property giant Hines for €37.6m.
The property generates an annual rent roll of about €3m.
In 2016, Hines paid a total of
€162m to buy four sites in Dublin that are being used or being developed as student accommodation. The sites included The Binary Hub in the capital’s Liberties area, which opened in summer 2016 and has 470 beds.
The Binary Hub cost Hines in the region of €80m, while a scheme on Dorset Street cost about €55m.
The four sites were sold by Oaktree Capital’s Threesixty Developments.
In March, a joint venture between privately-held, Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate and Dubai-based Global Student Accommodation Group announced plans for
600 student beds in Cork and more than 700 in Dublin.
The two companies will operate their €200m joint venture under the Uninest brand. Among the sites they’ll develop is the former Beamish & Crawford premises, where a 413bed project will be built.