Property developer Ballymore has secured planning permission for a new HQ for Guinness owner Diageo in Dublin.
The plan to convert the Brewhouse 2 building at the St. James’s Gate brewery in the heart of Dublin into a contemporary office space has been approved by Dublin City Council and will now move forward.
With Diageo as the anchor tenant, the building, which was formerly a part of Guinness’s brewing operations, will be slightly less than 13,000 square feet.
The Brewhouse 2 application is the first stage of a significant master plan for the larger St. James’s Gate site, which includes a mixed-use project called the Guinness Quarter that will be integrated into the larger Liberties area.
Diageo has hired Ballymore to complete the project, and the mixed-use project includes 336 housing units, a hotel, a 300-seat performance space, a food hall and marketplace, commercial work spaces, and more than two acres of landscaped public spaces across a 12.5 acre site. The mixed-use project is currently before the Council in a separate planning application.
The brewery operation at St James’s Gate is the home of Guinness and has a long-established history of brewing at the current location since 1759.
The repurposed office scheme is to be seven storeys in height — two storeys higher than the current five-storey Brewhouse 2 building.
The Council granted planning permission after its planner’s report stated that the proposed development would not injure the amenity of property in the vicinity and accords with the City Development Plan.
Shay Cleary Architects are designing the office scheme. In a report lodged with Dublin City Council, the firm stated the proposal “responds to the rich history of the existing building and retains the important conservation and heritage elements as pieces of the structure’s continuing history”.
The firm told the city council that “the proposals will ensure that this important and significant building continues in use into the future as an intrinsic part of the larger campus”.
A planning report lodged with the application by consultants, Brady Shipman Martin stated that the proposed redevelopment of the former No 2.
Brewery building “represents an important opportunity in the revitalisation of not only this building but a strategic positive intervention in the first phase of the redevelopment of the Guinness Quarter”.
According to the consultants, the plan aims to develop a dynamic mix of uses, appropriate animation, and activity at ground level that will “seamlessly integrate” with the larger scheme and “form a coherent part of the emerging masterplan for the Guinness Quarter.”