{"id":659162,"date":"2026-10-19T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659162\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T08:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:40:11","slug":"hotel-planned-on-central-dublin-site-after-investor-rules-offices-and-housing-not-viable-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659162\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel planned on central Dublin site after investor rules offices and housing \u2018not viable\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

German property investor KGAL<\/a> plans to replace a Dublin<\/a> city-centre office<\/a> block with a hotel<\/a> after concluding that neither extending the office nor redeveloping the site for housing<\/a> would be financially viable.<\/p>\n

The investor\u2019s proposal adds to signs of a shift from office development in Dublin, with Core Capital<\/a>\u2019s Derek McGrath<\/a> and Johnny Ronan<\/a>\u2019s development group also pivoting towards hotel construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, KGAL\u2019s Irish subsidiary Golden Lane Liffey Limited sought permission from Dublin City Council<\/a> to demolish 31-36 Golden Lane and build a new midmarket 225-room hotel beside the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel near South Great George\u2019s Street.<\/p>\n

The property was extensively refurbished after being let to San Francisco tech firm New Relic on a 20-year lease in 2017, but has been vacant since the company moved out last year.<\/p>\n

KGAL said in its application that several options were explored for the site, which included extending the existing three-storey office from 2,800sq m to 6,700sq m across eight storeys and refurbishing the block into 59 apartments or 160 student beds.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Aviva seeks operator for new luxury hotel on Dublin\u2019s Clarendon StreetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It added that demolition of the building and construction of a new hotel was the only viable financial option.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the current high level of office vacancy rates, the emergence of the \u2018work from home\u2019 model and the site\u2019s location outside of the core office districts, the redevelopment of the subject site for office use is not financially viable,\u201d KGAL\u2019s planning application said.<\/p>\n

Feasibility studies added that a financially viable apartment block would be difficult to build because the site\u2019s \u201cconstrained nature\u201d meant it would be difficult to meet residential development standards. Similar constraints \u201crender it not possible\u201d for student accommodation<\/a> of sufficient scale to be viable.<\/p>\n

A letter attached to the submission from student accommodation investor Urbanest said the site would need to house at least 200 bed spaces to be viable to run on a cost-per-bed space ratio.<\/p>\n

KGAL\u2019s application added that there had been strong demand for further hotel accommodation in Dublin based on occupancy across seven competing hotels exceeding 90 per cent in the summer of 2026.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tenant exit and flat rents weigh on \u20ac300m Dublin office portfolioOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The new hotel proposal has come soon after Ronan Group sought approval to change its redevelopment plans for the current Citigroup building<\/a> in Dublin\u2019s International Financial Services Centre<\/a> and replace 40 per cent of planned office space with two new hotels.<\/p>\n

McGrath\u2019s Renmark Property Holdings Limited also plans to change its development plans for a site near the RDS<\/a> in Ballsbridge<\/a>, where it has permission for an eight-storey office block. <\/p>\n

Last week, McGrath told the Business Post his firm had decided to develop a 244-bedroom hotel and a 194-bedroom aparthotel on the site instead due to uncertainty in the office market.<\/p>\n

KGAL, which manages \u20ac15 billion of assets globally, acquired 31-36 Golden Lane for \u20ac25.5 million<\/a> in 2018 from Peter Leonard and Derek Pippinga\u2019s Mm Capital<\/a>. The latest accounts for Golden Lane Liffey Limited valued the property at \u20ac20.1 million.<\/p>\n

The building was pre-let to tech firm New Relic on a \u20ac1.4-million-a-year, 20-year lease deal in 2017 and then went through an extensive refurbishment before the company moved in a year later. <\/p>\n

New Relic, which indicated it would grow its Irish headcount from 100 to 300<\/a> following the move to Golden Lane, has cut back its Irish office from 117 to 90 staff since 2022 and relocated to new offices on Pearse Street in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German property investor KGAL plans to replace a Dublin city-centre office block with a hotel after concluding that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17467,72,59969,59970,615,15940,39158,61,279175,60,39156,279173,279174,210971,31544,72306,39157,17160],"class_list":["post-659162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ballsbridge","tag-business","tag-core-capital","tag-derek-mcgrath","tag-dublin","tag-hotels","tag-hotels-properties","tag-ie","tag-international-financial-services-centre","tag-ireland","tag-johnny-ronan","tag-kgal","tag-mm-capital","tag-office-development","tag-office-investment","tag-rds","tag-ronan-group-real-estate","tag-student-accommodation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}