UrbanRenewal: Two restaurants - one on Exchequer Street, the other on South Anne Street - are planned for the area between South Great George's Street and Dawson Street. Fiona Tyrrell and Gretchen Friemann report.
Dublin's Exchequer Street in Dublin 2 will get a major boost with the arrival of a large new restaurant and food and wine outlet, if Dublin City Council planners give it the go ahead. With a wide variety of restaurants on offer from South Great George's Street back to South William Street, the area is now attracting a large proportion of young diners, including many who no longer go to the more boisterous Temple Bar district.
Plans to transform Exchequer Chambers, a large Victorian retail and office building at numbers 11 to 17 Exchequer Street into a mixed-use scheme involving a restaurant, possibly a French-style bistro, retail and office space extending to 1,998 sq m (21,506 sq ft), have been lodged with the council by Fallon and Byrne Ltd.
The ground floor of the building was once occupied by well-known traders Nicholl's until the mid-1980s when Dublin City Properties broke it up into four individual shops.
Telecom Éireann was the anchor tenant for a number of years and now Eircom, which still operates a telephone exchange from the premises, owns the building. It is currently negotiating a long-term lease with developers Brian Fallon and Paul Byrne. Brian Fallon is involved in the Lemongrass chain of restaurants in Ireland, which has recently opened a new restaurant in Churchtown and is gearing up for its first premises in Dublin city centre in the former Barry's Fashions outlet on South William Street.
Mr Fallon is also involved in the Red House Inn in Newbridge, Co Kildare which was recently destroyed by a fire.
The pair plan to change the existing basement and ground floor, comprising 1,059 sq m (11,399 sq ft), into a food and wine retail outlet.
The existing first floor telephone exchange will be turned into a restaurant with 313 sq m (3,369 sq ft) of floor space and the second and third floor, comprising 626 sq m (6,738 sq ft), will be retained as office space.
