Mount Carmel hospital at Churchtown in Dublin 14 is to be sold at a steep discount following the failure of the National Asset Management Agency to find an alternative company to take over the running of the country's only private maternity hospital.
Commercial property agents JLL are now guiding €12 million for the extensive hospital complex which will either be bought for use as a private hospital or sold for redevelopment as an upmarket housing site when it goes to tender on June 5th.
Simon Coyle of receivers Mazars is handling the sale of the hospital which was acquired by property developer Gerry Conlon in 2006 with a €60 million loan from AIB. The loan was transferred to Nama in 2010 along with his other borrowings.
The State property agency is understood to have provided support of nearly €10 million to the loss-making hospital before deciding that it was no longer sustainable.
Wind down
With the wind down of the hospital now complete and little prospect of finding a buyer for the medical facility the likelihood is that the site of 1.97 hectares (4.88 acres) will be bought by a developer anxious to cash in on the immense shortage of large family homes in south Dublin.
The site is located in a highly attractive residential area between Rathgar's Orwell Road and Churchtown's Braemore Road and alongside the river Dodder linear park. It is only 5km from the city centre and within easy reach of a range of schools including High School, De la Salle, Loreto, Terenure College and Alexandra College.
A study by RKD Architects has shown that the site can accommodate at least 50 semi-detached and terraced houses. Most of the site is zoned for residential use under the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown development plan with only a small portion of the site (0.13 of hectare /0.32 of an acre) designated for open space with “ancillary active recreational amenities”.
Interestingly, the development plan includes a specific institutional objective relating to the site. It says that where a well-established institution plans to close, rationalise or relocate, the council would endeavour to reserve the use of the lands for "other institutional uses and especially their open and landscaped settings". Where no demand for an alternative institutional use was evident or foreseen, the council may permit alternative uses "subject to the area's zoning objective and the open character of the lands being retained". It also specifies that a minimum open space provision of 25 per cent of the total area would be required on institutional lands.
Procedures
Though known primarily for its private maternity services the hospital generated most of its work and income from medical and surgical procedures, including paediatric surgical care, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, endoscopy, urology, ENT, plastic surgery, dental care, dermatology and vascular and pain management services. The hospital had a staff of 328.
The surgical environment was substantially upgraded and expanded in recent years. It has five fully equipped operating theatres, two purpose-designed endoscopy suites and 24 purpose-designed day beds. The grounds include a surface car park with spaces for about 200 vehicles.
Housing sites of this quality in a top-class suburban location would normally attract intense competition between the main players in the new homes market but with many of them now dependent on Nama after their loans were transferred to the State agency, the line-up of bidders is likely to be more restricted than at any time in the past.
However, small groups of cash-rich investors with access to bank lending have increasingly been putting their heads above the parapet, bidding for well-located development opportunities in the knowledge that the housing shortfall will inevitably lead to further price increases.
