Aparthotel company SACO Property Group has announced its first site purchase in Dublin since being acquired earlier this year by North American investment giant Brookfield.

Located on North Wall Quay, the 141K SF site will be developed under the Locke brand, which SACO describes as a “design-led aparthotel for those who want to challenge the status quo, and experience the unique and authentic”. 

Other Locke hotels in the portfolio have been described as “hipster heaven”, and “the perfect mix of personality, trendiness and convenient luxury”.

Named after Samuel Beckett, the Beckett Locke will offer 241 separate units — 138 studios, 72 one-beds and 31 two-beds — and all-day dining, outdoor seating, cocktail bar, ‘third-wave’ coffee shop/deli, co-working facility and a gym.

Bennett Construction is already on-site and the hotel is due to open at the end of 2020.

The site was previously owned by Target Investment Opportunities (TIO), a joint venture between Oaktree Capital Management, former owner of SACO, and Bennett.

SACO is also currently working on another site in Dublin, the former Zanzibar nightclub, bought at the beginning of 2017. That property is scheduled to open as the Ormonde Locke in 2020 and will comprise 160 units. 

This week’s Dublin acquisition, together with a 70K SF site on Tower Bridge Road in Southwark, London, represent SACO’s first new developments since being bought by Brookfield for £430M in March 2018.

The company opened its first Locke property in Aldgate, London in October 2016 and has since expanded to Manchester and Edinburgh. Earlier this year, it said it had a pipeline of 970 rooms in development in London, Manchester, Cambridge, Paris and Berlin, as well as Dublin.

And it has big plans for further growth. “We have been tasked by Brookfield to grow this platform to a £2B pan-European platform,” said SACO Managing Director Eric Jafari. “Our objective is to do eight acquisitions per year across European major city centres.”

Whether that growth will include additional Dublin properties will depend on whether it can find a suitable opportunity, the company said.