Dublin City Council Faces €581M Bill To Redevelop Camden Yard Scheme

The cost of moving Dublin City Council’s Wood Quay headquarters to Camden Yard could be as much as €581M, according to internal council documents, the Irish Independent reported.

The move would bring the council’s more than 6,000 staff together at the former Dublin Institute of Technology campus site on Kevin Street, which will include offices and new homes.

The authority estimated that the Camden Yard site, which was abandoned while partially built several years ago, will cost €581M to develop, including €90M for its purchase. The office development will cost €440M, while the housing element would cost €141M.

The six-block scheme would accommodate up to 4,000 staff, 2,800 spaces of which will be reserved for the council, with the remainder sublet, plus around 300 apartments.

DCC’s move would also free up its existing Wood Quay site, with proposals outlined to knock down the civic offices and replace them with a 530-apartment scheme across four blocks, with three cost-rental and the fourth social housing.

As lenders attempted to recoup some of their investment, agent CBRE first brought the ill-fated Camden Yard development site to market in May last year, guiding at around €90M. It was once considered one of Dublin’s most exciting mixed-use opportunities, comprising office space, residential units and retail.

The scheme came to market in February 2019, and later that year, Westridge Real Estate acquired the 3.6-acre site, paying €140M, a premium of more than 75% on the €80M price tag previously guided by Knight Frank for the DIT's successor, Technological University Dublin.

The original development plan included four Grade A office blocks totalling more than 600K SF, circa 300 apartments and around 7,500 SF of retail and dining space on the ground floor.

However, the onset of the pandemic not long after its purchase and subsequent turbulence in the financial and real estate markets prompted the withdrawal of some key backers, and construction stalled in mid-2023.

The impetus for the DCC’s proposed move is the need to improve energy efficiency at its current offices, which were completed in 1994 and which it estimated would cost between €487M and €504M to refurbish, depending on whether the project is carried out in phases or in one go.

The transaction is expected to be agreed shortly, and subject to ministerial approval to tender for developers, DCC hopes to occupy the offices in 2029.