{"id":200713,"date":"2025-12-19T20:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200713\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:22:07","slug":"dublins-civic-offices-at-wood-quay-to-be-redeveloped-for-homes-if-council-buys-dit-site-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200713\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin\u2019s civic offices at Wood Quay to be redeveloped for homes if council buys DIT site \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin City Council<\/a> has confirmed it is in \u201cexclusive discussions\u201d to buy the former Dublin Institute of Technology<\/a> (DIT) on Kevin Street, sold by the State six years ago for \u20ac145 million.<\/p>\n

Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare is understood to have made an offer of about \u20ac100 million for the site of the former college, now a derelict, partially built office block, and intends to develop it for a new council headquarters.<\/p>\n

The plan would involve all staff leaving the council\u2019s base at Wood Quay, the 1970s office complex designed by Sam Stephenson, which controversially involved the destruction of the remains of a Viking settlement.<\/p>\n

The Wood Quay site would then be redeveloped for more than 500 public homes, the council said.<\/p>\n

The Kevin Street site, close to St Stephen\u2019s Green, already has planning permission for a mixed office and apartment scheme called Camden Yard, with two office blocks up to 11 storeys in height, and 299 build-to-rent apartments across three buildings up to 14 storeys tall.<\/p>\n

In a letter to councillors on Friday afternoon Mr Shakespeare said the acquisition would \u201cenable the delivery of a new Civic Offices and up to 300 public homes on the Camden Yard site\u201d.<\/p>\n

Retrofitting the existing Civic Offices at Wood Quay to meet climate commitments \u201cis currently estimated to require \u20ac350 \u2013\u20ac400 million. Relocating from Wood Quay would unlock the potential for in excess of 500 public homes on the current Civic Offices site, while enabling modern, sustainable workplaces for staff and improved public services for citizens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloping modern, energy\u2011efficient accommodation at Camden Yard would significantly reduce our operational emissions while freeing the Wood Quay site for much\u2011needed public housing,\u201d his letter states.<\/p>\n

The old college campus, which first opened more 130 years ago, was sold in 2019 as part of the move by the DIT, now TU Dublin, to its consolidated campus at Grangegorman, on the northside of the city.<\/p>\n

Developer Westridge Real Estate paid in the region of \u20ac145 million for the college site, almost twice the \u20ac80 million guide piece, on behalf of US investors, and in September 2021 secured planning permission for its redevelopment.<\/p>\n

Construction started in 2022 but stalled two years later, with the shell of just two storeys built. Late last year, funder BentallGreenOak appointed Grant Thornton as receivers to the project.<\/p>\n

Another company, Orange Capital Partners (OCP), was reported to be in negotiations to purchase the site since August, having submitted a \u20ac91 million offer \u2013 just above the \u20ac90 million guide price. However, this sale didn\u2019t go ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin City Council has confirmed it is in \u201cexclusive discussions\u201d to buy the former Dublin Institute of Technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,615,13288,61,60],"class_list":["post-200713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}