The ornate red brick Victorian building that used to house Baggot Street Hospital in Dublin is being sold by the HSE with a likely price tag of up to €14m.

The landmark 60,000 square feet is likely to be redeveloped into a hotel or upmarket apartment buildings according to estate agents Savills.

One of the conditions of the sale is that the buyer will be required to provide a new primary care health centre in a convenient location covering the area stretching from the Grand Canal to Dublin 4 suburbs such as Sandymount and Donnybrook.

The HSE is offering to enter a long-term agreement to lease the new centre at €193 per sq m - or to take ownership of the new facility with the cost likely to be part of the overall price paid for the property.

Some €5m is expected to be invested in developing this new facility.

John Swarbrigg of Savills, who is handling the sale, is of the opinion that this very well located site is going to attract strong interest due to “the uniqueness and quality of the offering, combined with very favourable dynamics in the residential, office and hotel markets in Dublin.

He is “expecting to attract substantial interest from investors across the globe, with a number of local and international investors already having made approaches.” 

The hospital complex comprises of the original five storey over basement red brick hospital building fronting Baggot Street Upper, a two storey granite faced building facing onto Eastmoreland Lane, a late Victorian building at no. 19 Haddington Road and various modern infill structures of different heights.

Baggot Street community hospital was originally founded in a single house (no. 9 Baggot Street) in 1831 by a group of doctors from the Royal College of Surgeons, then known as the City of Dublin Hospital. The institution grew into no. 14-18, the premises having been re-numbered over time.

The hospital then had ‘Royal’ added in 1900 following a visit by Princess Alexandra who had accompanied her mother Queen Victoria on her visit to Ireland at that time; however in 1986 the hospital ceased to operate as an acute general hospital.

It then re-opened shortly afterwards under licence from the Trustees to the Health Authority, presently the HSE, who now operate the premises with the building known as “Baggot Street Hospital”.