3,000 homes to be built on €2bn Cherrywood lands

3,000 homes to be built on €2bn Cherrywood lands
Thousands of homes will be built on a prominent Cherrywood development.

It has emerged that close to €2bn will be spent on developing the much sought-after site.

The two winning bidders for the land have ambitious plans.

Hines, a family-run €23bn developer, and King Street Capital, which is one of the world's biggest hedge funds, are acquiring the 400-acre development site for more than €270m from Nama, Danske and Lloyds.

Prominent

The site, which is bigger than London's Hyde Park, went on sale for €220m last July.

The lands were billed as "the most prominent underdeveloped land bank to ever come to market in this country".

It is believed that the building of 3,000 houses would be a priority for Hines.

"They see the need for large-scale home development in Dublin and they have finance in place for that," a source said.

"There's a town centre plan out there and all that goes with that in business, retail and residential development.

"In terms of Ireland, they would be fully-committed to a long-term presence here. They recruited a very experienced development and asset management team and will increase it from eight people to 15 in the coming months.

"They have that development finance in situ and ready to go. Himes will bring on local development partners and home builders, but they will absolutely lead and manage the thing."

Hines has a track record of complex retail, office and residential development.

It has built three massive developments in Europe on a similar scale to Cherrywood, in Barcelona, Milan and Paris.

The prime Dublin site is expected to become a focal point for development in the city over the coming years, following the adoption previously of the Cherrywood Strategic Development Zone.

The development of Cherrywood has been described as of huge importance to the economy in terms of job creation and addressing the rapidly declining supply of office and housing space in Dublin.

Source : Irish Independent‎ 17/11/2014