A three-storey Victorian nursing home located on a high-value site at Pembroke Park in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 is set to trigger intense competition between investment groups and property developers when it goes for sale from Wednesday.

Joint agents Lisney and Ganly Walters are guiding in excess of €5 million for St Mary’s Home and its exclusive grounds, which extend to 0.35 hectare (0.86 acre).

The redbrick building will either be converted into apartments alongside a new row of houses, or demolished and redeveloped as a high-rise apartment block.

St Mary’s adjoins the 12-storey Ardoyne House apartment block on the southern side and the two- and three-storey St Conleth’s College on the northern end. Significantly, St Mary’s Home is not a listed building.

Newly built apartments or houses on Pembroke Park would inevitably attract premium prices, though hardly as much as the super-exclusive apartments on the former Berkeley Court hotel site in Ballsbridge, where prices for two-beds started at €900,000.

A review of the future potential for the nursing home by John Fleming Architects suggests that the existing three-storey, 1,207sq m (13,000sq ft) building could accommodate 11 apartments (four three-beds, six two-beds and one one-bed) and that nine new houses could be developed fronting on to Pembroke Park and Clyde Road. A mews house on Clyde Lane occupied by a caretaker is included in the sale.

Ross Shorten of Lisney said that in these days of higher densities it was quite possible that a developer may look for permission for “a completely different scheme, an all-new build of apartments with much greater height”. The nursing home is situated in an area zoned “residential conservation”.

St Mary’s Home first served as a school when it was built in 1891. It was later converted for use as a nursing home for retired women in the Church of Ireland. The 31 current residents are due to relocate to St John’s House opposite St Vincent’s Hospital on Merrion Road, which is now being extended by Protestant Aid to provide 56 bedrooms with ensuite facilities. It also accommodates residents of the former Molyneux Home on Leeson Park. St John’s has a range of communal facilities as well as a chapel.

Developers or investors planning to bid for St Mary Home will be asked to submit a formal, binding tender by January 17th next.