Deloitte advises Diageo on Dublin 8 development
Courtsey: V&A Museums
The international advisory firm, Deloitte, has been speaking to Future Cities Forum about its role in the launch of a developer procurement process for the re-imagination of the historic Guinness facilities at St James's Gate, Dublin.
Diageo is seeking a development partner to deliver a re-design of the buildings, including vat houses, cooperages, grain stores and Arthur Guinness' original house with its sweeping staircases, across an area of circa 1.5 million square feet. All the buildings speak of an age of industrial grandeur and are of architectural merit. Tunnels, cobbled streets and train tracks add further opportunity to create a unique development proposal.
Deloitte Real Estate Partner, James Graven, notes that this is one of the most high profile development opportunities in recent times in Dublin with the aim of delivering a new urban quarter of mixed use retail, hotel and housing - to rival King's Cross in London.
In Dublin 8 the success of the start-ups and entrepreneurs within the Guinness Enterprise Centre and Digitial Hub is igniting regeneration on a local level. This is set to continue with the Liberties identified as a potential innovation corridor for the city.
The St James's Gate site, which is close to the proposed new National Children's Hospital at St. James's Campus, has capacity for 500 new homes, 5,000 square metres of retail, 63,000 square metres of office space, as well as a hotel. It is expected that the chosen development partners will help to open up the gates to culture and community. The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Ireland are within walking distance.
The Guinness Storehouse, Ireland's and Europe's leading tourist attraction is an immediate neighbour with over 1.6 million paying visitors in 2016.
Shortlisting of the developers will take place in early 2018.