Home of Derry City club to be auctioned for £350,000 next week

The former Catholic Club premises at 19 Crawford Square is among 341 lots due to go under the hammer at an Allsop auction in The Cumberland Hotel in London, on Thursday, July 20, at 2 p.m.

The building complex currently contains the Derry City club, a gym trading as Crawford Fitness, and 21 flats.

Sixteen of the flats are currently occupied, while five are listed as vacant.

According to the auctioneer the social club and the gym together bring in an annual rental income of £45,000, while the rental value of the flats has not been estimated.

The vendor confirmed that most of the rental yield comes from the Derry City Sports and Social Club, which is subject to a ten year lease from December 2009 when it first opened, and which brings in £39,000 per year for the landlord.

The Crawford Fitness gym, meanwhile, which is subject to a five year lease from 2015, brings in £6,000 a year in rental income.

The block, which is at the very top of the south side of Crawford Square, backing onto Academy Road, will go under the hammer with a reserve of £350,000.

While the Derry City Sports and Social Club had the full blessing of Derry City F.C.’s Board of Directors as “a focal point for supporters, sponsors and the general public in order to make the venture a financial success for the club in the long term” when it first opened in 2009, this is no longer the case.

In January of this year the football club “strongly objected” to the use of the Derry City name by the social club.

Meanwhile, two other Rosemount properties are also due to be sold off at the same auction in Mayfair next week.

A freehold mid-terrace house in Mount Street, which has been converted into three self-contained flats, will start with a reserve price of just £40,000.

A further freehold mid-terrace house, which has been internally arranged to provide six self-contained flats in Eden Terrace, is being offered from £70,000.