Irish property investor to submit plan for new 34-room hotel in Dublin city
Permission sought to transform offices by BCP Capital – but no operating group in place to run operationBCP Fund Management DAC is to apply for planning permission for the project at St Andrew’s House on Exchequer Street, seeking to convert upper floors into a 34-room hotel. The ground floor of the building hosts several retail units.Ray Crowley, director of BCP Capital, confirmed the fund’s plans to transform part of the building into a hotel.“The intention is to open a tourist hotel across the upper levels of St Andrew’s House,” he said.Crowley added that the fund had not yet signed an operating contract with a hotel group.Demand is improving in the retail, office and industrial sectorsSuch an arrangement is used by other property investors. For example, BCP currently co-owns the former Central Hotel in Dublin City Centre, which is now being operated by the Hoxton hotel brand.Last August, the Sunday Independent reported that BCP and property co-owner Deutsche Finance International were planning to put the former Central Hotel property on the market. The hotel is also on Exchequer Street.In 2017, BCP paid €11.3m on behalf of its international fund for St Andrew’s House. The four-storey-over-basement Victorian block was acquired with five shops fronting onto Exchequer Street, and two more on South William Street.The switch from offices comes as the Irish commercial property market finally shows signs of recovery after a lengthy decline that started during Covid.Last month, an outlook report published by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) found that demand is improving in the retail, office and industrial sectors.The performance of the office sector was more mixed.The Irish hotel market recorded its strongest yearThe prime market is continuing to recover, with capital values predicted to increase by 2.4pc and rents by 2.9pc, reflecting strong demand for high-quality office space in good locations.However, the secondary market has still not recovered, with capital values for older offices expected to fall by 0.7pc and rents by 0.8pc.In February, research by property agency Savills found that the Irish hotel market recorded its strongest year on record last year, with transaction value exceeding €1.7bn.The record performance was largely driven by the €1.4bn sale of Clayton and Maldron owner Dalata to Oslo-based investment firm Eiendomsspar and the Swedish hotel company Pandox. Around €1bn of the deal’s sales price was related to Irish hotel assets.The Savills report found that 66 hotels had been sold last year. This was more than double the number that changed hands in 2019.The higher transaction level was linked to an easing of borrowing costs.
