Gannon sells his Clonskeagh Paper Mill site for over €18m
DEVELOPER Gerry Gannon has completed the sale of the Paper Mill site in Clonskeagh, Dublin 6 to Bain Capital, an American-owned private investment firm which has been involved in a number of property developments in Dublin.
Sales agents Knight Frank had been quoting €18m to €20m for the site and it is believed to have achieved slightly over the €18m mark. CBRE acted for the purchaser.
State agency Nama will benefit from the deal as it had a charge on the site.
The 3.14-acre site has planning permission for 126 apartments in blocks rising to four storeys and the deal also included 10 existing terraced period houses on Clonskeagh Road with full planning permission for their refurbishment. Planning permission on the site includes 25 one-bedroom apartments, 98 two-beds and three mews/ penthouse units.
However that planning permission pre-dated the decision of former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who coincidentally is TD for the area, to allow developers to apply for apartment blocks of much taller heights.
Taking its name from the former Smurfit paper mill which was one of a number of mills that used to operate on this part of the river, many of the apartments will have views over the River Dodder and a proposed walkway. The location benefits from close proximity to Beech Hill Office Campus, UCD’s Belfield campus as well as Donnybrook and Ballsbridge.
Bain’s Dublin office is headed by David Cullen and it has been involved in a number of residential developments in Dublin with Irish developer Regency Homes which was established in 2009 by Aodan Bourke and Patricia Hinch Together they are developing houses at Scholarstown Wood, Rathfarnham; Hollywood Rath, Dublin 15; and Knockrabo, Mount Anville, Dublin 14.
Regency is currently developing a scheme of 51 one- and two-bedroom apartments at Station Manor, Portmarnock, Co Dublin where it previously developed three-, four- and five-bedroom houses.
Mr Gannon acquired the Paper Mill site in 2005 as part of a €115m deal that also included a 49pc stake in the K Club,
In 2012 Mr Gannon sold his stake in K Club to Michael Smurfit for a reported €40m.