Developer close to signing €70m deal for Mercedez site

DEVELOPER DRES Properties is close to signing a €70m deal to buy the landmark Mercedez-Benz site on Naas Road, which is owned by the O’Flaherty family.

Property sources say if the deal for the 15-acre site goes ahead, up to 2,000 homes could be built in an €800m development.

It is thought that Sisk Group, the largest construction company in Ireland, is also involved in the purchase of the land.

The O’Flaherty family, who own Motor Distributors Ltd, one of the biggest car dealerships in the country, have owned the plot beside the Naas Road and Long Mile Road since the 1950s.

It is the headquarters of the family’s MSL Motor Group and Mercedez-Benz Ireland.

The property does not have permission for residential homes, but a submission on behalf of Motor Distributors to Dublin City Council earlier this year, asked the local authority to relax its height restrictions on the site.

In its latest draft development plan, DCC said that while the plot required building heights of between six and eight storeys fronting onto Long Mile Road, Walkinstown Avenue and Robinhood Road, there was potential for “one to two mid-rise buildings of (up to 50 metres) within the site” – which is about 17 storeys.

The former Volkswagen factory, which operated until the 1980s, is a protected structure on the land.

Developer Michael O’Flynn owns a ten-acre former Nissan site across the road.

In 2020, he received planning permission to build more than 1,100 homes and a 15-storey hotel there, with an estimated build cost of €625m.

The sites are located within the City Edge Project area, which aims to transform more than 1,700 acres across the Naas Road, Ballymount and Park West areas.

DCC and South Dublin County Council estimate that City Edge could increase the local population from about 5,000 people to 80,000.

Planning permission has been granted for 4,000 units in the area in recent years – the vast majority of which will be apartments.