A consortium of investors has paid slightly over £2.6 million (€3.3m) for the former AIB bank premises at the corner of Lower O'Connell Street and Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.

Wynn's Hotel, which adjoins the bank, is understood to have been the underbidder for the landmark building, which has 7,500 sq ft of space on five levels. The double height banking hall has a floor area of 2,200 sq ft with a striking glazed dome, marble floors and pillars and glazed tiled walls. The facade has been described as "a free form of classical renaissance".

The building housed the School of Wireless in the early part of the last century and it was from there that the rebels alerted the world to the 1916 rising. The block was damaged by British forces at that time and was redeveloped in 1922 as a branch of the Munster and Leinster bank.