Dublin’s Digital Hub to Close by June 2022 – Shane Adlum covers the shock closure of a modern Dublin Intuition
The Land Development Agency (LDA) are set to take ownership from the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA) and redevelop the site into social and affordable housing. The Hub in the liberties is currently home to 31 technology companies.
The DHDA have said they are “deeply disappointed” by the governments decision to shut down the agency. Since its foundation in 2003 it has served as the initial base for over 400 companies and 2000 employees. Companies such as Stripe, Havok, Eventbrite, Etsy, Slack and Amazon have all called the Dublin 8 campus their home at some stage. The hub consists of 10 buildings and currently has 72,000 sq. ft of office space rented out.
Besides providing a base for tech companies, the DHDA have worked with the local community and run a number of free education and training programmes which promote digital literacy, predominantly for school children, older residents and those at risk of educational disadvantage or social exclusion. The DHDA will now be focusing on minimising the impact of their dissolution on their current occupants, staff and the local community.
It was the decision of The Department of Communications and Minister Eamon Ryan to dissolve the DHDA saying that they had “played a key role in the early days of Dublin’s development as a tech hub” but it was “no longer required in order to sustain the continued growth of the sector.”
Despite their disappointment about the decision, the DHDA are said to be pleased that it will be the LDA who will redevelop the 5.6-acre site off Thomas Street. They had already been working together since 2019 trying to develop plans to improve their Dublin properties.
The LDA have stated that they will deliver a “mixed use but residential led scheme” and would provide “affordable and social housing, creating sustainable new homes and integrating them with the existing, established community.”
Fiach Mac Conghail, CEO of the Digital Hub Development Agency has expressed his disappointment and says they “regret that the Minister and the Department didn’t share our vision for creating a sustainable urban quarter in the Liberties.” Paul Holden, Chair of the agency stated “The Board of the Digital Hub was surprised to learn that the Agency is to be dissolved” and added that they were “extremely disappointed that our ambition to build an enterprise cluster focused on e-health, climate action and other significant social and economic challenges, rooted in the local community was not shared.”
The Digital Hub will continue to operate for its current occupants and keep running its community programmes until June 2022.
