Green light for €350m city quarter at Wilton Park in Dublin 2

Property fund Iput has been granted planning permission for a €350 million redevelopment of the Wilton Park site in Dublin 2, which it says will create a new city quarter of office, retail and restaurant space.

The 450,000sq ft scheme for Two, Three and Four Wilton Park, centred on a one-acre city park, is one of the largest building projects undertaken in the capital since the crash.

At ground level, the development will include cafe, restaurant and retail facilities centred on a new public square.

Iput has already begun redeveloping the adjacent One Wilton Park site, which has been fully pre-let to US tech firm LinkedIn and is scheduled for completion in late 2020.

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The company’s plans for the three inter-connecting office buildings has now been given the green light by An Bord Pleanála and is scheduled to begin in 2020 and targeted for completion in 2023.

The entire 600,000sq ft scheme, including One Wilton Park, is expected to cost €350 million to redevelop.

A new quarter

Iput has gradually acquired the four properties and adjacent sites over the past decade with a view to developing the quarter as a whole.

The Wilton Park estate includes the former Fitzwilton House, now One Wilton Park, whose former tenants include the Australian embassy and William Fry solicitors, and Wilton Park House, formerly let to the IDA.

Iput acquired the adjoining Lad Lane apartments for €10 million in September 2015; and Gardner House from Kennedy Wilson in November 2017.

The company previously owned the other major property on the site, Gardner House, selling the office block for €65 million in 2006.

"The entire Wilton Park scheme will deliver over 600,000sq ft of office and new retail/restaurant spaces which will be completed to the highest global standard in design and sustainability," said chief executive Niall Gaffney.

“Iput strategically assembled the Wilton Park estate over the past decade with a vision to create an entirely new city quarter . . . around its park,” said Mr Gaffney.

“Wilton Park and its public spaces will be carefully designed and landscaped to realise true ‘place making’ in this part of Dublin city,” he added. The value of Iput’s properties in the Republic is now reckoned at €2.5 billion.

The news comes as property group Green Reit submitted an application to redevelop Buildings N1, N2 and N3 at Central Park in South Dublin, which would offer leasing opportunities of up to 508,000 sq ft in Dublin’s premier office park. The development, if approved, will extend the park to over 1.5 million sq ft of office, hotel, retail and restaurant space.

“The development will include a wellness pavilion building, a public open space, sunken gardens, a shared entrance plaza and a roof terrace offering excellent views across the Dublin Mountains,” the company said.

It will also feature both 474 basement car spaces and the same level of dedicated cycle storage spaces, along with shower facilities.