Former Dunne HQ on Merrion Square offered at €1.5M

One of the best preserved Georgian houses on Dublin’s Merrion Square, used for many years as a headquarters by Sean Dunne’s Mountbrook Homes, is to be offered for sale on the instructions of receivers Grant Thornton, reports the Irish Times.

Paul Hanly of property agent HT Meagher O’Reilly is guiding €1.5 million for Number 67 Merrion Square, located on the south side of the square between Upper Merrion Street and Lower Fitzwilliam Street.

The four-storey over basement building was extensively refurbished and modernised in recent years and was leased to two tenants after Mr Dunne relocated to the United States.

The building has an overall floor area of 534sq m (5,753sq ft) including a range of large handsome rooms with a combination of carpet, tile and timber flooring. Category 2 lighting has been installed as well as voice and data cabling services.

The two tenants are under contract for combined rents €109,712 per annum. At that level the investment should be showing a return of 7 per cent.

The self-contained basement is let to Hedley Park Montessori whose lease expires at the end of next July. The remainder of the building is occupied by Acuvest InvestmentAdvisers who specialise in pensions and investments and whose five year lease runs from July 2012.

The €1.5 million asking price is a long way from the top price paid for a neighbouring house during the property boom in July, 2007. Businessman Loughlin Quinn, one of the owners of the nearby Merrion Hotel, paid almost €9 million at a Finnegan Menton auction for No 80 Merrion Square which had been owned by the Football Association of Ireland. It was rented last year to the Slovakian Embassy. Source: The Irish Times.