Over €25 million for headquarters of The Irish Times

After 111 years and ahead of a move to Tara Street, The Irish Times is selling its headquarters on D'Olier and Fleet streets, writes Jack Fagan

The Irish Times is to sell its extensive headquarters in Dublin city centre in advance of its move to a new office block in nearby Tara Street. The newspaper has been operating from its present premises on D'Olier Street and Fleet Street for 111 years.

Estate agent CB Richard Ellis is quoting a guide price of over €25 million for the landmark building which is likely to be redeveloped after it goes for sale by tender on June 23rd.

Management and staff are due to move this summer into a newly built office block, Liffey House, at the junction of Tara Street and Townsend Street, where the latest technology has been installed to ensure the smooth and efficient production of the newspaper.

The move follows the development of an €85 million printing and publishing facility at Citywest, which has facilitated the production of larger newspapers with a greater range of colour options.

The production of the newspaper has undergone major changes in recent years. It is now published simultaneously in Dublin, London and Madrid. The Citywest printing operation was recently extended to handle an ever-increasing number of other contract publications.

The Irish Times has been based in the Westmoreland Street/Fleet Street/D'Olier Street triangle since 1895. Previously it was based in Lower Abbey Street, near Wynns Hotel, after its foundation in 1859. The Irish Times clock was located on Westmoreland Street for many years until the 1970s and was subsequently moved to D'Olier Street along with the front office. The intention is to move the clock once more if planning permission is forthcoming.

The block going for sale covers most of D'Olier Street and part of Fleet Street - 8 to 16 D'Olier Street and 24 to 27 Fleet Street. The entire site extends to 0.18 hectares (0.44 of an acre) with 65 metres of frontage on to D'Olier Street and 60 metres on to Fleet Street.

The overall floor area comes to around 6,000sq m (64,584sq ft) and, according to Ronan Webster of CBRE, the planners are likely to look favourably on a higher density scheme in line with the Treasury Holdings development of the Westin Hotel on the opposite side of Fleet Street.

Curiously, numbers 8 to 16 D'Olier Street are listed for preservation in the Dublin City Development Plan 2005-2011 even though numbers 11 and 12 were completely rebuilt after a fire in the early 1950s.

Webster says that, subject to planning permission, he believes the office and printing facility will be developed as a high density office, residential, hotel or mixed-use scheme. It is the largest block of properties to come on the market in the city centre since Independent Newspapers sold its Middle Abbey Street premises two years ago.