Offices: The former head office of Independent News & Media on Hatch Street has been sold for €10million, writes Jack Fagan.

Independent News & Media has sold its former head office, Fitzwilliam House, at 1-2 Upper Hatch Street, Dublin 2, for €10 million.

The new owner, a Swedish investor, is seeking planning permission to remodel and extend the 1970s office building which is in need of considerable upgrading.

The Independent's chief executive, Tony O'Reilly, has had an office in Hatch Street for many years along with some of the companies he is associated with, including Fitzwilton and Waterford Wedgewood.

The newspaper group put the building on the market last summer and, even though the Swedish investor agreed terms early on, the sale was not completed until last Friday.

Thomas Carty of agents Harrinton Bannon, who advised the Swedish purchaser, said he was planning to spend about €9 million on extending and remodelling the building and replacing the façade with a mainly glazed frontage.

There is already planning permission to increase the floor area of the building from its present size of 1,579 sq m (17,000 sq ft) to 2,230 sq m (24,000 sq ft).

Since agreeing to buy the office block, the new owner has sought planning approval for a further 465 sq m (5,000 sq ft).

The sale of the Hatch Street block comes almost a year after Independent Newspapers sold its headquarters in Middle Abbey Street for a reported €26 million. That property was acquired by Arnotts department store and a consortium of developers headed by Paddy Kelly.

The development potential of the Abbey Street building will have been greatly helped by the introduction of the Luas Red line service into Middle Abbey from Tallaght and Connolly Station.

James Mulhall of CBRE Gunne advised the Independent on the sale of Hatch Street.