St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) is considering relocating its Dublin city centre hospital in a move that would free up a residential property development site worth at least €100 million.
It is understood that SPMHS is looking at the feasibility of relocating the St Patrick’s University Hospital, which has 241 inpatient beds, from James Street in Dublin 8 to St Edmundsbury in Lucan, where it also owns land.
Relocation is one of a range of options under consideration as the organisation grapples with the need to modernise and expand its facilities. It is understood that no decision has been made.
The proceeds from the sale of most of the land at James Street would be used to fund the construction of a new 200-bed hospital at St Edmundsbury, where SPMHS already has a 52-bed facility.
It is understood that preliminary meetings have been held with South Dublin county council on the suitability of the Lucan site for a new hospital. The relocation is being considered because building a new hospital on the James Street site would be extremely costly and logistically difficult. The cost of a modern 200-bed hospital there would be close to €150 million, and building works would cause serious disruption to services for a number of years.
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Any sale and relocation proposal would, however, have to take into account the future use of listed historical building that forms part of the James Street site. The original mental hospital was funded by the will of Jonathan Swift, a former dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral and author of Gulliver’s Travels, and the hospital is governed by a charter from when it was established in 1746.
SPMHS is considering continuing some service delivery from the historical building.
The organisation has, for example, plans to develop a new €12 million National Centre for Mentally Healthy Living, and has already raised €3 million for the project, including €2 million from the immigrant investor programme (IIP). The IIP allows for investment by foreign citizens in return for residency.
One other option under consideration is that the agreement to sell the James Street site to a developer, excluding the historical building, could be linked directly to the delivery of the new hospital, sources say. Another alternative involves pursuing a change of planning on the St Edmundsbury site to residential and commercial, and selling the lands there.
When contacted this weekend a spokesman for SPMHS said it was “not true” that the organisation was moving from James Street.
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Any proposed relocation would be complex, with the need to get three different sets of planning permissions, including residential planning for the James Street campus.
Property sources say that the site could attract a price well in excess of €100 million, and possibly as much as €150 million to €200 million.
Dublin 8 is regarded as the city’s next development hot spot, with large developments planned for the area including the redevelopment of the former Players Wills factory on the South Circular Road by Hines; Newmarket Square, a €100 million project being backed by Bain Capital; and the redevelopment of part of the Guinness brewery, known as the St James Quarter.