Teepee Developments, the private Irish developer headed up by leading town planner Tom Phillips, has secured about €11.5 million from the sale of a newly completed aparthotel on Bride Street in Dublin city centre. The Staycity Dublin Castle, as it is known, has been acquired by a fund managed by BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Managers.
The property comprises 51 bedrooms and is occupied in its entirety by Staycity, a highly successful international aparthotel group under its core Staycity brand on a long-term lease with a weighted average unexpired lease term of more than 20 years.
Founded in 2004 in Dublin by chief executive Tom Walsh and his brother, Ger, Staycity operates across 23 sites with more than 5,500 apartments across properties in Dublin, Berlin, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Liverpool, London, Lyons, Manchester, Marseilles, Paris, Venice and York.
Staycity operates under the Staycity Aparthotels and Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brands. The aparthotels have 24-hour reception and most have a cafe selling drinks, snacks and breakfasts, a guest lounge, a gym and guest parking. The company is already the largest aparthotel operator in Dublin with a total of 232 units across four properties.
The Staycity Dublin Castle is well-located in Dublin 8, south of the river Liffey, and just 850m from St Stephen’s Green. The Dublin 8 area is home to a number of notable visitor attractions including Christ Church Cathedral, St Patrick’s Cathedral and Dublin Castle. Other highlights include the Guinness Storehouse at Diageo’s famous St James’s Gate brewery, and the Teeling Whiskey, Roe & Co and Pearse Lyons distilleries. Trinity College Dublin is a short walk away.
Quite apart from its existing 51-bedroom capacity, the Chancery Lane investment came for sale with significant value-add potential and full planning permission to extend the property by one floor to include seven extra units. Planning for the development is valid until April 2024.
Dave Murray of CBRE’s hotel and licensed division handled the sale of the property on behalf of the vendor while Damien McCaffrey of BNP Paribas Real Estate advised the purchaser.
Commenting on its acquisition of the Staycity Dublin Castle, a spokesperson for BNP Paribas said: “We are pleased to have identified this opportunity, which is in line with our investment objectives. Staycity Dublin Castle generates defensive income while offering the potential for future value creation. We continue to seek out new investments on behalf of our various funds targeting the UK and Ireland, particularly across the residential and healthcare sectors.”
