With Dublin's 'north fringe' rapidly taking shape, the sale of a pivotal site in the area is seen as an important test of the market development land.
THE FIRST HIGH value site to go for sale in Dublin this year - the former Crosson Motors at Clare Hall on the Malahide Road in Dublin 17 - will be seen as an important test of the strength of the development market.
CB Richard Ellis is seeking over €35 million for the strategically located 1.13 hectares (2.8 acres) which have full planning permission for a high density mixed-use scheme.
The site is due to go to tender on April 30th.
With an eye to its master plan for a new town centre beside the nearby Malahide/M50 junction, Dublin city planners have granted planning permission for a five to eight storey development which will include 167 apartments, 6,520sq m (70,181sq ft) of shopping, 6,150sq m (66,200sq ft) of offices, a large crèche and 422 carparking spaces over two basement levels. The Crosson Motor Group, once one of the capital's largest car franchise dealerships, sold its headquarters site at Malahide Road in June, 2006, for more than €15 million.
The purchasers were Landmark Developments, the company behind the successful Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, who subsequently bought in an adjoining Shell filling station to enable them to get approval for a more comprehensive scheme.
The site is in an area undergoing major changes with thousands more homes planned over the next few years alongside an enhanced public transport system and a new urban centre to service the enlarged community. The North Fringe Framework Development Planhas recommended that the Malahide Road junction with
the M50/N32 should be partially by-passed to create a new high street or boulevard which will link the emerging new town centre - to be known as Malahide Junction Centre - with another square alongside the proposed Dart station at Clongriffin. This facility is due to come into operation next year.
Even before the town centre takes shape, much of its components are already in place, such as the Tesco-owned Clare Hall shopping centre, the high density Clare Village apartment scheme and the Belmayne housing estate, Hilton and Bewleys hotels and Total Fitness leisure centre.
About a mile away, developer Gerry Gannon has gone even further, finishing the new Clongriffin town centre, complete with supermarket, shops, hotel, offices,homes and underground park-andride facilities in readiness for the opening of the new Dart station next year. Dublin's North Fringe is set to become one of the fastest changing suburbs over the next few years with ever more families choosing to live there because of the improved transport links to the city centre, the wide choice of shopping, leisure and public amenities, and the extensive range of housing types available.
Alan McArdle of CB Richard Ellis says the flexible zoning on the former Crosson site means that it has a variety of potential uses.
While it is ideal for a high densityresidential or mixed-use development, its zoning and proximity to the Quality Bus Corridor and new Dart station also opens up the possibility of it being used primarily for shopping because of its extensive frontage in a proposed new town centre.
While the demand for development sites has weakened considerably since the onset of the credit crunch, there are any number of developers in a position to buy the Malahide Road site after the longest property boom in the history of the State. Well located sites such as this one will always attract attention from developers as well as leading multiple traders
