€400m scheme for Microsoft campus

RedevelopmentSite: A large shopping, leisure, cultural and residential development is planned for Sandyford. Jack Fagan, Property Editor, reports

Planning permission is to be sought next week for a major shopping, leisure, cultural and residential development on the 12.5-acre Microsoft Campus in Sandyford, Co Dublin, which is to be vacated by the high tech company at the end of June.

The €400 million Beacon South Quarter will, according to the promoters, be "a world showcase nationally and internationally". It will be built by Landmark Developments, a consortium led by businessman Paddy Shovlin, which is well advanced on developing a mixture of offices, a medical clinic, a public-private hospital and local shopping facilities in the adjoining Beacon Court.

Beacon Court South is to be promoted as a "unique cultural development" that will provide a vibrant area in which to work, shop, live and enjoy a variety of sporting and artistic activities.

There will be a fairly spectacular two-storey building at lower ground and plaza levels (because of an 8-metre fall off in the level of the site) which will have about 13,935 sq m (150,000 sq ft) of retail warehousing at the lower level to accommodate designer furniture stores, specialist food stores and art galleries.

A further 4,645 to 9,290 sq m (50,000 to 100,000 sq ft) on the upper floor will be available for convenience shopping, cafés and restaurants.

To broaden the appeal of the proposed development, the promoters are to have a designated cultural centre, an observation platform with spectacular views over Dublin, an outdoor theatre, a public square one-and-a-half times bigger than Fitzwilliam Square, a farmer's market in the summer and ice skating in the winter, as well as leisure facilities including a swimming pool and gym, and public landscapes developed by an internationally recognised landscape architect. Theatre and film director, Peter Sheridan, will be cultural adviser at the new facility.

Many of the public facilities will be funded from the sale of 750 apartments of varying sizes, designs and layouts. There will be parking on site for 1,900 vehicles. The complex will be just off the M50 and within walking distance of Luas.

The latest Landmark scheme, like Beacon Court, will broaden the appeal of Sandyford where other developers have stuck rigidly to commercial buildings. Across the road from Beacon Court, Treasury Holdings is hoping to line up B & Q for a major retail warehouse to be built on the former Alegro site.

Earlier this year, Landmark paid Green Property €40 million for the Microsoft Campus which has three office buildings, two of them unoccupied.

Microsoft has been paying a rent of around €2 million and, apparently, plans to move its European hub operations to the Atrium office development a short distance away in Sandyford.

Landmark has had sales of over €100 million in Beacon Court, including five own-door office units, a crèche with 120 spaces, a newsagent and beauty salon.

The Beacon Clinic has 32 consultant suites while the Beacon Hotel is due to open next December.