{"id":543866,"date":"2026-06-19T17:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543866\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:42:13","slug":"former-baggot-street-ulster-bank-to-become-boutique-hotel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543866\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Baggot Street Ulster Bank to become boutique hotel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Plans are to be lodged for a boutique hotel on the site of the former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ulster-bank\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ulster-bank\/\">Ulster Bank<\/a>  on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Dublin<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/baggot-street-lower\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/baggot-street-lower\/\">Lower Baggot Street<\/a>. It will include a \u201cspeakeasy\u201d bar in the former bank vaults in the building\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The project, by former Jones Engineering boss Jim Curley\u2019s firm, Dairy Hill Property Ltd, also include a 93-seater restaurant and bar to be located in the former banking hall on the ground floor. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Curley family investment vehicle, Astogo Holdings, bought the 790sq m (8,500sq ft) building in October 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The property had a guide price of \u20ac2.5 million and it was reported at the time that the sales price was slightly above that. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In addition to the former bank premises, the Curley family also acquired the three adjoining properties on Lower Pembroke Street on an off-market basis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The plans by Dairy Hill Property Ltd \u2013 controlled by Jim Curley and Janet Curley \u2013 involve a redevelopment across the former Ulster Bank building, which is a protected structure, and properties at 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 Pembroke Street Lower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The published statutory planning notice states that the development would involve the conservation, restoration, partial demolition, extension and change of use of 130 Baggot Street from a vacant bank to a boutique hotel, restaurant and speakeasy bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The scheme involves the demolition of the buildings at 33-37 Pembroke Street Lower \u2013 previously approved by the council in 2021 \u2013 and to construct in their place a six-storey-over-basement extension to use as part of the hotel development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The notice also said the boutique hotel would also include a private residents\u2019 lounge, spa and a cafe unit on the ground floor of 33 Pembroke Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Curley was chief executive of Jones Engineering Group from 1978 until the sale of the company in 2022. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The company was acquired in 2022 by Texas-based investment firm Cathexis for a sum understood to be in excess of \u20ac1 billion and Curley was the company\u2019s second-largest shareholder at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The most recent accounts for the Curleys\u2019 Dairy Hill Property Ltd show it had investment properties with a book value of \u20ac34.38 million at the end of 2024. The company\u2019s activities were financed by loans of \u20ac38.3 million from a connected Curley company and parent firm, Burnham Investments Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans are to be lodged for a boutique hotel on the site of the former Ulster Bank on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[233291,79,8611,52,67859,18,19,17,3525,2089],"class_list":["post-543866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-baggot-street-lower","tag-business","tag-commercial-real-estate","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-2","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-planning-permission","tag-ulster-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116778011859964634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}