14–17 O'Connell Street Lower

The brief — 25 August 2026

Your questions, and where we answer them.

1Is there sufficient operator demand for a 44-key apart-hotel here?Operator demand ↓ 2Which operators or operator types would be interested?Operator demand ↓ 3What rent and lease terms could the market support?Lease evidence ↓ 4What specification and fit-out would an operator expect?The process — set by the operator ↓ 5Lease, management agreement, or another structure?Structure, and our view ↓ 6Would rental / investment value justify the development cost?The read-through ↓ 7Should operators be approached before the design is fixed?The process — yes, and it matters ↓ 8How should the project be progressed from here?Next steps ↓

Credentials

The firm, and the person leading the work.

Grand Canal Capital Partners originates, structures and executes Irish and UK hotel transactions. We do not operate hotels — our value is in pricing, structuring, and knowing which operator will sign.

Years advising on Irish hotel investment

20+

Of hotel assets advised

€3bn+

Disposal, acquisition, operators

Chartered valuation credibility

MRICS

and MSCSI — chartered valuation credibility

Director and Senior Director, CBRE Hotels, Dublin

8 yrs

Relevant track record — Dave Murray

Project / asset	What the mandate involved	Client
Guinness Quarter, St James's Gate	Operator selection for two hotels — one luxury, one lifestyle upscale — within a 5-hectare urban quarter	Ballymore, Diageo
Project Connolly, Dublin	Operator selection of a 240-room hotel in a major mixed-use scheme, let to The Standard Hotel Group under a management agreement	Ballymore / Oxley
Staycity, Dublin city centre	Re-negotiation of a previously signed lease, and acquisition of a 340-key apart-hotel	Song Capital
Premier Inn, Dublin Docklands	Pre-let of a 263-bedroom hotel to Premier Inn, and the subsequent forward-funding disposal	Glenveagh plc
Premier Inn, Newmarket Yards	Pre-let of a 157-bedroom hotel to Premier Inn, and the subsequent forward-commitment acquisition	Bain Capital / Deka
National Sports Campus, Dublin	Masterplan advice, advisory reports for Government funding, and operator selection for athletes' accommodation	Sport Ireland

14–17 O'Connell Street Lower, Dublin 1

A consented 44-key apart-hotel on the boulevard.

Planning reference: WEB5551/25 — Dublin City Council
Final grant: 24 March 2026 (registered 22 January 2026)
Applicant: D1 Collection Limited
Consent: 44-bedroom apart-hotel, first to fourth floors, Nos. 14–17
Ground floor: Change of use of the No. 17 restaurant to reception and coffee shop
Basement: Partial change of use to admin, plant, storage and staff
Enabling works: Party-wall openings at each level to link the four buildings; enlarged universal-access lift at Nos. 16–17
Constraint: Each of the four buildings is a protected structure

Consented apart-hotel keys over four protected structures

44

What this means commercially

Planning on a protected structure is the hardest consent to win on this street, and it is granted and final.

The open questions are commercial, not planning: who operates it, on what structure, and at what rent.

A second income line worth testing The consent turns the No. 17 restaurant into the apart-hotel reception and coffee shop. An operator may not require that restaurant area within its demise — in which case it could be held back and let separately, producing additional rental income alongside the apart-hotel rent. Worth putting to operators at the sounding stage.

Why the pitch works

The largest regeneration pipeline in the city.

An apart-hotel here is underwritten on the street as it will trade once the following complete — and an operator will price it that way too.

Consented scheme — CGI, View 1 Proposed — Consented scheme — CGI: Digital Dimensions, View 1 Proposed

1

GPO regeneration

€200m–€500m committed under the National Development Plan to reposition the GPO as a civic and cultural destination

2

Dublin Central

5.5 acres with c.200m of O'Connell Street frontage — 40,000 sq m of workspace, two hotels, 100 homes

3

Clerys Quarter

Offices, an 18,000 sq ft rooftop bar and restaurant, two hotels, Earl Place Market, H&M and Decathlon

4

MetroLink

A future O'Connell Street station on the Swords–Airport–city line. The single biggest change to this pitch

5

Dublin Arch

111,000 sq m at Connolly — six office buildings, 187 homes, a 200-bed hotel and a new public square

6

Parnell Square

A 5,500 sq m City Library and conference centre, anchoring the north end of the boulevard

Consented accommodation within a few minutes' walk

Demand validation and competing supply in the same figures — which is why an operator commitment now matters.

229

Room hotel · Earl Place

245

Room hotel · over Arnotts

600

Hostel beds · Sackville Place

316

Student beds · Independent House

How we would run it

Four phases, roughly six to eight months.

The apart-hotel operator pool is genuinely limited — but demand within it is strong, and it is a market that rewards a tight, well-targeted approach rather than a wide auction. We would run a target list of 5 to 10 parties.

Phase 1 · 2–3 weeks

Pre-marketing

Kick-off and site visit
Target list and market sounding — 5 to 10 parties
Marketing collateral and data room
Objective setting and draft heads of terms

Phase 2 · 5–6 weeks

Marketing

Meetings and calls with each operator
Managed site visits and Q&A
Challenge operators' trading assumptions
Guide offers toward your requirements
Collect non-binding offers

Phase 3 · 9–11 weeks

Selection

Qualitative and quantitative assessment
Advise on viability, risk and brand fit
Shortlist of no more than three
Negotiate; second round of offers
Best and final; exclusivity

Phase 4 · 10–12 weeks

Signing

Coordinate legal advisers
Sign off the fit-out and brand plan
Agree the specification against the rent
Execute the lease or agreement

To your question on sequencing Yes — go to operators before the design and specification are fixed. Room size, kitchenette provision, back-of-house and the FF&E split are what set the rent, and they are the operator's requirements, not yours. Freezing the design first means paying to build something you then discount to let.

Indicative timeline; Phase 2 onward is affected by your own decision process. Figures reflect current market practice for a Dublin operator selection.

Competitive tension

Why the process, and not just a phone call.

You could approach one operator you know and take the terms offered. The reason not to is that operator terms move materially under competition, and the movement is in the owner's favour on every line that matters.

Rent or fee level

The headline number, and the one most owners focus on exclusively.

Guarantee or covenant

Whether the rent is backed by a parent guarantee, a bank guarantee, or nothing at all. Frequently worth more than the headline rent.

FF&E and fit-out split

Who funds the fit-out, at what €/key, and whether it is a contribution or a rent-free equivalent. The largest single swing in your net development cost.

Rent-free and ramp-up

Length of the rent-free period and whether rent steps up over the ramp. Concedes quietly under competition.

Break options and term

Frequency of tenant breaks, compensation on break, and total certain term — which is what drives the investment yield on exit.

Five negotiable terms, of which the rent is only one. A single-operator negotiation typically settles four of them on the operator's standard form.

The choice

Three structures, and what each one hands you.

Lease

You are a landlord

Your income

Contracted rent, fixed or hybrid

Trading risk

Sits with the operator

Upside

Limited — indexation, or a variable top slice

Control

Low — brand standards and use only

You fund

Generally full turnkey; in some cases a partial fit-out

Financing

Straightforward — bankable contracted income

Franchise

You operate under a brand

Your income

Trading profit, less franchise fees

Trading risk

Entirely yours

Upside

Full

Control

High, within brand standards

You fund

Everything, plus working capital

Financing

Hardest — you carry operating risk

Management agreement

You own a trading business

Your income

Gross operating profit, less operator fees

Trading risk

Sits with you

Upside

Full

Control

Moderate — via budget, performance test, approvals

You fund

Fit-out, FF&E reserve, working capital

Financing

Harder — income is not contracted

Terms common to all three: length of term, extension options, brand standards and capex freeze, break options, key money, FF&E reserve, transitional services and any PIP or capex plan.

Structure one

Lease — certainty of income, capped upside.

Where it wins for the owner

Contracted income from day one — no trading risk, no employment risk, no opex exposure
Financeable — a contracted rent is what a lender will lend against and a valuer can capitalise
No owner-side asset management function required
Simple governance — you are a landlord, not a hotel owner

Where it costs you

You give away the trading upside in a market running at record RevPAR
Covenant risk concentrates in one tenant for 25 years
A smaller pool of operators offers leases than management agreements — less competitive tension
No influence over how the asset is run

Where lease terms sit in the current market

Term	25 years typical; 20–35 years all evidenced in Dublin
Structure	Hybrid fixed-plus-variable now favoured by institutional owners — a lower fixed component, a higher variable share
Break option	More frequent than historically, with a compensation mechanism
Conversion right	A flip to franchise or management agreement is not standard, but worth exploring depending on your exit strategy

Market-practice summary based on GCCP operator-selection experience and current European lease negotiations. Indicative — actual terms are asset and covenant specific.

Structure two

Management agreement — full upside, full responsibility.

Where it wins for the owner

You keep the whole trading upside in a strong market
A far larger pool of operators offers management agreements — real competitive tension on terms
Owner protections have moved your way: performance tests, cure rights, owner priority return, guarantees, key money
Brand distribution and loyalty programme drive the top line
Flexibility to reposition, re-brand or convert to franchise or lease to facilitate a sale

Where it costs you

Trading risk, employment exposure and working capital all sit with you
You need an owner-side asset management capability — a cost a 44-key asset struggles to carry
You fund fit-out, FF&E reserve and pre-opening
Income is not contracted, so it is harder to fund and typically valued at a wider yield
Fee stacks are opaque unless negotiated hard — base, incentive, brand, marketing, loyalty and distribution all land separately

Where management agreement terms sit in the current market

Term	20 years typical, plus two five-year renewals; shorter terms are now obtainable
Base fee	Broadly 1.5%–3.0% of revenue, with the emphasis shifting toward profit-based incentive fees
Incentive fee	Broadly 4%–12% of adjusted gross operating profit, usually banded by margin
Owner protection	Owner priority return with limited clawback and no annual caps; FF&E reserve increasingly notional or capped
Performance test	This provision provides the Owner with the ability to terminate in the instances of under-performance

Market-practice summary based on GCCP operator-selection experience and current European management agreement negotiations. Indicative only.

Which one fits this asset

For a 44-key apart-hotel, our view is a lease.

1

A 44-key asset cannot carry an owner-side operating function

Asset management, financial control, procurement and employment risk cost broadly the same whether the hotel has 44 rooms or 200. On 44 keys that overhead consumes the very upside a management agreement is meant to deliver.

2

The value case rests on capitalising contracted income

All eleven Dublin transactions in Section 4 sold on the strength of an occupational lease, at yields between roughly 4.0% and 5.05%. A 44-key lot is likely too small for the institutional capital behind those deals, so the realistic buyer is a private investor, family office or syndicate — but they will still price off the lease, and there is no comparable market at all for an unleased trading asset of this size.

3

Branded management operators do not take 44 keys

Published site-selection criteria for the major apart-hotel and lifestyle brands start at 60 to 100 units. A management agreement at this scale means a small or white-label operator, which removes the brand distribution that is the main argument for the structure.

4

The apart-hotel model is built for fixed rent

Low fixed staffing, remote check-in and limited food and beverage produce a stable, high-margin operating profit — which is precisely what lets an operator commit to a fixed rent at this scale.

But negotiate the option, not just the rent Explore a conversion right to franchise or management agreement — not standard, but worth testing against your exit strategy — and press for a parent-company guarantee behind the rent. Either is worth more on exit than another €500 per key of headline rent.

GCCP view, on the evidence in this pack and before any operator sounding. A market sounding may change it — that is what the sounding is for.

Lease evidence

Thirteen Dublin hotel and apart-hotel leases.

Hotel	Location	Grade	Rooms	Annual rent (€)	Rent / room (€)	Term	Rent review
Ruby Molly	Dublin 7	4-star	272	4,760,000	17,500	30 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar -1%
Premier Inn Newmarket	Dublin 8	3-star	151	1,623,000	10,748	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0%
Premier Inn Castleforbes	Docklands	3-star	262	3,013,000	11,500	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0%
Premier Inn Gloucester St	Dublin 2	3-star	113	1,412,500	12,500	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0%
Staycity Little Mary Street	Dublin 8	Apart-hotel	340	4,462,800	13,126	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 1%
Staycity Townsend Street	Dublin 2	Apart-hotel	202	2,440,000	12,079	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0.995%
The Samuel Hotel	Dublin 1	4-star	204	2,805,000	13,750	35 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 3.5% / collar 0.5%
Premier Inn Sth Gt Georges St	Dublin 2	3-star	100	1,225,000	12,250	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0%
Staycity Mark Street	Dublin 8	Apart-hotel	142	1,600,000	11,268	25 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 0.985%
Clayton Charlemont	Dublin 4	4-star	187	2,962,857	15,844	35 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 3.5% / collar 0.5%
The Marker	Dublin 2	5-star	187	4,846,717	25,918	20 yrs	Index linked
Premier Suites Ballsbridge	Dublin 4	Apart-hotel	49	950,000	19,387	35 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 4% / collar 1%
The Gibson	Dublin 1	4-star	252	4,200,000	16,667	35 yrs	5-yearly CPI, cap 3.5% / collar 0.5%

Average across all thirteen: €14,811 per room. Four-star city-centre median €16,667 · apart-hotel average €13,965. Highlighted: the only sub-100-key comparable in the set.

Rent per room — the read-through

What this evidence says about your 44 keys.

Annual rent per room (€) — thirteen Dublin leases

Highlighted: Premier Suites Ballsbridge (49-key apart-hotel) · Ruby Molly (best recent benchmark)

Source: GCCP · lease evidence, Section 4.

The only small-lot comparable is the strongest

Premier Suites Ballsbridge — 49 keys, apart-hotel — achieved €19,387 per room on a 35-year lease, above every four-star comparable except The Marker. Small lot size did not depress the rent per key; if anything it supported it.

Apart-hotel rents sit below hotel rents per key, but the Staycity evidence is dated

The three Staycity pre-lets were struck between 2015 and 2018 and commenced between 2022 and 2023. They understate today's terms.

Ruby Molly is the best recent benchmark

€17,500 per key on a 30-year lease, executed 2021 for a 2024 commencement, at 272 keys in a comparable city-centre position.

Investment evidence

Eleven Dublin hotel investment transactions since 2017.

Every transaction below was an investment sale subject to an occupational lease. That is the exit this scheme is being built toward.

Property	Loc.	Grade	Rooms	Date	Price (€)	Per room (€)	NIY	Structure	Buyer
Ruby Molly	D8	3-star	272	Oct-22	86,000,000	316,176	5.05%	Fwd purchase, lease	Deka Immobilien
Premier Inn Newmarket	D8	Budget	151	Oct-22	34,650,000	229,470	4.26%	Fwd purchase, lease	Deka Immobilien
Staycity Little Mary St	D7	Apart-hotel	340	Sep-22	92,400,000	271,765	4.40%	Lease to Staycity	Song / Alpha Real
The Samuel Hotel	D1	4-star	204	Sep-22	52,000,000*	255,000*	4.25%*	Lease + ground lease	Blackstone
Premier Inn Gloucester St	D2	Budget	111	Jun-22	35,000,000	315,315	Sub-4%	Fwd fund, lease	Aviva Investors
Staycity Dublin Castle	D8	Apart-hotel	52	Jun-22	11,500,000	221,154	4.75%	Lease to Staycity	BNP Paribas REIM
Premier Inn Castleforbes	Docklands	Budget	262	Jul-21	70,000,000	267,176	4.25%	Fwd fund, lease	Union Investment
Clayton Charlemont	D2	4-star	187	Apr-20	65,000,000	347,594	4.25%	Sale and leaseback	Deka Immobilien
Premier Suites Ballsbridge	D4	Apart-hotel	49	Sep-18	17,500,000	357,143	5.00%	Sale and leaseback	Aviva Investors
The Gibson	D1	4-star	252	Dec-17	91,200,000	361,905	4.29%	Lease to Dalata	Deka Immobilien
Maldron Smithfield	D7	3-star	92	Feb-17	20,000,000	217,391	5.02%	Lease to Dalata	Deka Immobilien

Highlighted: the two sub-60-key transactions. Small lots traded at 4.75%–5.00% — roughly 50 to 75 basis points wider than the large-lot institutional set, but they traded, and to institutional buyers. * Estimated.

The read-through

Does the rental and investment value justify the build?

A first-order test, not a valuation. It tells you whether Plan 2 is worth the next stage of work — not what the asset is worth.

A · Indicative rent

€18,000 – €23,000

per key, per annum

B · Passing rent on 44 keys

€792k – €1.01m

per annum, fixed

C · Capitalised at 5.25% – 5.75%

€13.8m – €19.3m

gross of purchaser's costs

D · Implied value per key

€313k – €438k

per key

What we cannot yet answer The delivered development cost — fit-out and FF&E per key across four linked protected structures, plus the ground and basement income you would displace. Until an operator sets the specification that number cannot be fixed. Plan 2 works if all-in cost lands comfortably below column C.

GCCP indicative analysis derived from the evidence in this pack. Not a valuation, not advice to transact, and subject to specification, covenant, term and letting risk.

Operator demand

44 keys rules out a hotel, not an apart-hotel.

Why a traditional hotel does not work here

A conventional hotel has to provide food and beverage, a staffed reception, housekeeping, back-of-house and a full management structure
Those costs are largely fixed, so they need volume to carry them — which is why branded hotel operators set minimum key counts
At 44 keys the overhead per key is simply too high for that model to pay

Why the apart-hotel model does

An apart-hotel carries none of those obligations — no food and beverage requirement and no full-service ancillary offer
In-room kitchenettes let the guest self-serve; check-in is lobby-based or remote, staffing is low and fixed, stays are longer and servicing less frequent
So critical mass is reached at a far smaller lot size — which is precisely why this is the consented use, and why the 44 keys is not the obstacle it first appears

What scale does still affect

The size of the tenant pool

Every additional key widens the field of operators who will look at it. At 44 the pool is real but narrow; at 80 to 120 it is genuinely competitive.

What that pool will pay

More bidders is what moves rent, covenant strength and the fit-out contribution — not the building, and not the location.

Liquidity on exit

A €14m–€19m lot sells to private investors and family offices. North of €30m opens the buyer universe considerably.

The option your portfolio creates You own roughly ten adjoining buildings. Combining 14–17 with adjacent upper floors to reach 80 to 120 keys is a pricing and liquidity decision, not a viability one — the 44-key scheme works on its own.

A named target list is the first deliverable of Phase 1 and follows a market sounding, not a desk view.

Next steps

How we would progress it from here.

A staged appointment, so you can stop after Stage 1 if the answer is no.

Stage 1 · 2–3 weeks

Strategic assessment and market sounding

Confirm the consented scheme, key mix and net saleable area against the operator specification
Discreet, no-names sounding of 5 to 10 operators on appetite, structure and indicative rent
Test the 44-key case against an enlarged 80 to 120-key case using adjoining buildings
Written recommendation: proceed, enlarge, or stop

Stage 2 · 5–6 months

Operator selection process

Full competitive process as set out in Section 2 — marketing, offers, shortlist, negotiation
Specification and fit-out cost set by the winning operator's requirements, not before
Like-for-like comparison of every offer on a net effective basis
Heads of terms agreed under exclusivity

Stage 3 · 3–4 months

Documentation and delivery

Coordinate legal advisers to lease or agreement for lease
Sign off the brand and fit-out plan against the agreed rent
Ongoing input through construction and hand-over
If an investment sale is the exit, take the leased asset to the institutional market

Timings indicative and dependent on your own decision process. Fee proposal below.

Commercial terms

Fee proposal.

Staged and success-based, against the stages set out above. No marketing cost, and we are paid when an operator signs.

Service	Scope	Fee
Operator selection	Full competitive process: marketing, offers, shortlist, negotiation and heads of terms under exclusivity	10% of the average annual rent achieved over the first five years of the term, ignoring any rent-free period or inducement. Payable on signing of the lease agreement.
Investment sale — optional	Taking the completed, income-producing investment to market	1% of the gross sale proceeds. Payable on completion of the sale.

No marketing cost

We carry the cost of the marketing collateral, the data room and running the process. No marketing budget is sought from you.

Instructed stage by stage

Each stage is appointed separately. You are under no obligation to proceed beyond the stage in front of you, and nothing falls due for a stage you do not instruct.

VAT and outlay

All fees exclusive of VAT. Third-party outlay — legal, technical, planning — contracted by you directly.

Indicative terms only. Not an offer capable of acceptance; a formal engagement letter would follow agreement of scope and terms.

Your questions, and where we answer them.

The firm, and the person leading the work.

The opportunity

A consented 44-key apart-hotel on the boulevard.

What this means commercially

The largest regeneration pipeline in the city.

GPO regeneration

Dublin Central

Clerys Quarter

MetroLink

Dublin Arch

Parnell Square

The operator selection process

Four phases, roughly six to eight months.

Pre-marketing

Marketing

Selection

Signing

Why the process, and not just a phone call.

Lease or management agreement

Three structures, and what each one hands you.

Lease

Franchise

Management agreement

Lease — certainty of income, capped upside.

Management agreement — full upside, full responsibility.

For a 44-key apart-hotel, our view is a lease.

A 44-key asset cannot carry an owner-side operating function

The value case rests on capitalising contracted income

Branded management operators do not take 44 keys

The apart-hotel model is built for fixed rent

Market evidence

Thirteen Dublin hotel and apart-hotel leases.

What this evidence says about your 44 keys.

The only small-lot comparable is the strongest

Apart-hotel rents sit below hotel rents per key, but the Staycity evidence is dated

Ruby Molly is the best recent benchmark

Eleven Dublin hotel investment transactions since 2017.

Does the rental and investment value justify the build?

44 keys rules out a hotel, not an apart-hotel.

The size of the tenant pool

What that pool will pay

Liquidity on exit

How we would progress it from here.

Strategic assessment and market sounding

Operator selection process

Documentation and delivery

Fee proposal.

No marketing cost

Instructed stage by stage

VAT and outlay

Consented. Evidenced. Ready to sound the market.