Update On St James’s Gate Guinness Quarter – Craig O Reilly surmarises the new massive Guinness Development
Ballymore has lodged a planning application for the new Guinness Quarter development at St James’s Gate. Since the announcement back in 2017, Ballymore have been working with Diageo on a creating a modern neighbourhood in Dublin 8 that takes advantage of the unique heritage at St James Gate. They’ve now released more information from the upcoming master-plan for the area.
There will be 2 acres of landscaped public spaces, with both indoor and outdoor spaces which could be used for different events.
A marketplace for producers and creators
Commercial workspaces for big and small enterprises.
336 homes will be built including one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. These will include homes to buy, homes to rent and social housing.
There will be bicycle parking allowing for up to 2000 bicycle spaces.
The plan will see hotel accommodation as well as a food hall to serve tourists.
Key historical aspects of the site will be conserved or in some cases expanded and refurbished to preserve the character of the area.
They have ambitions to make the area one of the first zero-carbon districts in Dublin.
Sean Mulryan is the chief executive at Ballymore and he outlined his excitement about the project:
“This is modern, sensitive and highly sustainable urban design at its best and Ballymore is honoured to be a custodian of the site’s heritage, while adding the next layer of history and legacy to this important area of Dublin”
The site comprises a land area of 12.6 acres with a public realm of 2.5 acres. St James’s Gate was originally the Western entrance for Dublin city during the Middle Ages. It is a seminal part of the history of the Liberties. In 1759 it became the site of the famous Guinness brewery and is a huge tourist attraction for the area.
Over the years Diageo has shown strong interest in promoting Guinness culturally; they launched Arthur’s Day in 2009 to mark the 350th anniversary of the brewing company. After some criticised that event they then launched “Amplify”; a music initiative for Irish artists.
It seems to follow then that they will be well placed to have a cultural impact with this new development.
It is still unknown what exact per-centage of the 336 houses will be used for social housing, though Ballymore have stated they will be working with the Iveagh Trust to deliver in this area. The master-plan should be available to the public soon.
