Agent Avison Young is guiding a price of €1.5 million for Numbers 20 and 20A Camden Row in Dublin 8. The property, a protected structure, served up until recently as the home of the City and County of Dublin Conservative Workingmen’s Club.
While the club is now vacating its premises at basement level, the building’s upper floors continue to generate total rental income of €87,500 per annum from a strong tenant line-up consisting of an architectural firm, digital marketing company and a pilates studio. Should a sale proceed at the guide price, the purchaser would be in line for a net initial yield of 5.2 per cent. There is potential, however, to secure a reversionary yield of up to 10 per cent based on leasing the vacant space within the building. In this regard, the former club premises at basement level, with fully fitted bar and lounge, offer an immediate opportunity according to the selling agent, to re-establish a private club, or a bar, restaurant or venue (subject to licence).
The subject property is a protected structure with number 20 dating from about 1820 and comprising a three-storey-over-basement building. Number 20A is a single-storey property dating from 1855. Taken together, the buildings comprise a net internal floor area of 863.3sq m (9,291sq ft). Initially built as a workhouse with a ‘dry moat’ around the building, the property later became a Protestant hospice and the boys’ school of the now demolished St Peter’s church on Aungier Street, the present site of the YMCA building.
The development of the building was prompted by a drive by the Conservative Party in the late 19th century to arrest the decline in its popularity in Great Britain and here in Ireland by engaging the support and participation of the working class through the establishment of working men’s clubs in the major cities. The City and County of Dublin Conservative Workingmen’s Club was the second such club (the first was in Liverpool in 1881) and was established in August 1883, at a property in York Street. The club relocated to 20 and 20A Camden Row in 1962. The political and recreational aspects of the club were separated in the early 1900s and the social club remained active at 20 Camden Row up until recently.
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20 and 20A Camden Row occupy a prominent location at the junction of Camden Row and New Bride Street in Dublin city centre, adjacent to the vibrant Camden Street quarter and a short walk from St Stephen’s Green.
Artem Makarevitch and Edmond Nolan of Avison Young say they expect to see interest in the property both from private investors and from bar and restaurant operators.
