{"id":320723,"date":"2026-02-27T21:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/320723\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T21:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:32:07","slug":"dublin-city-council-move-to-former-dit-site-from-wood-quay-expected-to-cost-e581m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/320723\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin City Council move to former DIT site from Wood Quay expected to cost \u20ac581m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Dublin City Council headquarters and apartment complex on the site of the former Dublin Institute of Technology<\/a> (DIT) on Kevin Street could be developed for just over \u20ac580 million* according to Dublin City Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The deal to buy the site is expected to be finalised within weeks and the council hopes to have built the 14-storey scheme and vacated its Wood Quay base within the next three years, in what would be the biggest move in the local authority\u2019s history since the construction of the riverside offices 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Details emerging of council chief executive Richard Shakespeare\u2019s flagship project reveal a strategy to replace the Sam Stephenson designed offices at Wood Quay with more than 530 apartments that would be primarily used for cost rental<\/a> housing. An income would also derive from subletting up to one third of the new offices in the Kevin Street development.<\/p>\n

Councillors were in recent days told the purchase price of the old college site, currently a derelict, partially-built office block, will be \u20ac90 million, which would be incorporated into overall development costs of \u20ac581 million. However, these costs would be off-set by scrapping the planned refurbishment of the Wood Quay buildings, renting out 30 per cent of the new offices at Kevin Street, and long-term housing gain at both Wood Quay and Kevin Street.<\/p>\n

While the purchase does not require Government sanction, the cost of the new development, which involves offices for 4,000 people and 299 apartments, is subject to Government approval. The scheme must also be submitted for review by the Department of Public Expenditure\u2019s<\/a> major projects advisory group, due to its massive price tag.<\/p>\n

The old college campus was sold by the State 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 two office blocks up to 11 storeys in height, and three apartment buildings up to 14 storeys tall.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin\u2019s civic offices at Wood Quay to be redeveloped for homes if council buys DIT siteOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Work on the development called Camden Yard, which started in 2022 but stalled two years later, with the shell of just two storeys built. In late 2024, funder BentallGreenOak appointed Grant Thornton as receivers to the project.<\/p>\n

Two months ago, it emerged the council was bidding to acquire the site. Documents presented to councillors in recent days state the \u201cpurchase price of \u20ac90 million is lower than the excess of \u20ac100 million in construction costs\u201d already invested in the site.<\/p>\n

The Wood Quay offices require a complete energy retrofit to meet climate commitments. The documents state the move to Kevin Street avoided a \u201cprojected circa \u20ac500 million retrofit cost with the existing civic offices which would not yield additional housing or wider regeneration benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n

The riverside site could accommodate 532 apartments, three quarters of which would cost rental housing, aimed at low- and middle-income workers, with the remainder used for social housing.<\/p>\n

The Camden Yard offices would \u201ccomfortably accommodate a workforce of 4,000 people\u201d. The council would require capacity for 2,800 staff, with the move allowing it to \u201cend reliance on externally leased office space\u201d saving \u20ac2.4 million annually. The remaining 1,200 spaces would be available for rent. <\/p>\n

The council hopes to secure ministerial approval to go to tender for builders by the end of this year, with a two-year construction phase and occupation by 2029. It estimates the office construction will cost \u20ac440 million, with the council facilities costing \u20ac338 million and the sublet offices costing \u20ac102 million. The 299 apartments would cost \u20ac141 million to build.<\/p>\n

* This article was amended on February 27th. It had originally reported the overall council estimate was \u20ac670 million, whereas it was \u20ac581 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Dublin City Council headquarters and apartment complex on the site of the former Dublin Institute of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,13288,148897,105129,3662,61,60,43,3665,72304],"class_list":["post-320723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-dublin-city-council-development-plan","tag-dublin-institute-of-technology","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-renting","tag-tu-dublin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320723","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=320723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}