The Tara Towers hotel on the Merrion Road in Dublin 4 is to be demolished shortly to make way for the development of a 140-bed 4-star Maldron, as well as 69 residential units and a basement car park.

Hotel group Dalata bought the 1.46 acre site in January 2016 for €13.15M and operated the Tara Towers hotel until the end of September.

McAleer & Rushe has been appointed the main contractor on the development, which will cost an estimated €51M with delivery due in Q1 2021.

A residential scheme with 69 units — including townhouses, studio apartments, two-bed duplexes and two- and three-bed apartments — and 69 car parking spaces is also being developed on the site.

IRES REIT has agreed to pay up to €47.16M for the residential scheme on completion. The final amount payable and the number of units to be bought will depend on the social and affordable allocation with Dublin City Council, which still has to be settled.

According to IRES, the homes should be available for letting by Q4 2021 at the latest. The REIT already owns 201 apartments at the adjacent Elmpark development.

IRES has also just announced its acquisition of a 1.3 acre site with planning permission for a 95-unit apartment block in Hansfield Wood, Dublin 15. The company has agreed a deal with the vendor Garlandbrook — trading as Alanna Homes — for the development of the apartments. The total price of the site purchase and development is €30M.

Construction on the block began in July and is expected to be completed by July 2020.

In a similar agreement with Garlandbrook last November, IRES agreed to buy a 4.5 acre site with 99 houses, apartments and duplexes under construction for a total €30M. So far, 91 of the units have been delivered, with eight due for completion by the end of this month.