Massive extension planned for offices

After much speculation it has emerged that the former Department of Justice headquarters on St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, will be massively extended, given a face-lift and retained as offices, if a planning application by the developer is successful.

Shelbourne Developments bought Hainault House at 69-71 St Stephen's Green earlier this year for €52.3 million - more than €12 million above the guide price. The proposal seeks the renovation of the exterior of the building - which is regarded as an eyesore on the mostly Georgian Square. The six-storey over basement building was built in the mid-1960s and later nicknamed The Lubianka.

Shelbourne Developments, run by Garrett Kelleher, is looking to add two recessed upper floors and three six-storey extensions to its east, south-west and western elevations, a five-storey extension to the north and another addition to the front. This would add over 5,000 sq m (53,819 sq ft) to its original size of 7,782 sq m (83,765 sq ft). The proposal includes two terraces at ground floor and roof terraces at the sixth and seventh floor.

The planning application also looks for a change of use of part of the basement car-parking area to ancillary office accommodation - reducing the number of car-parking spaces from 82 to 65.

There was initial media conjecture that Shelbourne might turn the building into luxury apartments. It was initially believed that the building was unsuitable for conversion in to modern office accommodation, but it later emerged that the OPW had carried out a study some time ago which found this not to be the case.