Leading property developer Joe O'Reilly is to take a major stake in a €350 million development of a theatre and office complex at Grand Canal Harbour in the Dublin docklands.
Mr O'Reilly has agreed terms to carry out one of the largest developments in the south docklands on a joint venture basis with Terry Devey's Heritage Properties, which acquired the landmark site several years ago from the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. The development will take 30 months to complete and will have an end value of about €500 million.
The 2,000-seater theatre and office blocks have been designed by the American architect Daniel Liberskind, whose scheme for the World Trade Center in New York was modified by Skidmore Owings & Merrill. The Grand Canal theatre will be over 40 metres in height and will front on to Grand Canal Square, which is being remodelled by the American landscape architect Martha Schwartz. The theatre will be run on the lines of a West End theatre by one of the leading international operators.
The office element, comprising 34,373sq m (370,000sq ft), will stand eight storeys high and be divided into two blocks. Neil Bannon of Bannon Commercial is in negotiations to lease the largest block of 20,438sq m (220,000sq ft) to a single company. The second block of 13,935sq m (150,000sq ft) is to be sold off in individual suites at a cost of over €10,764 per sq m (€1,000 a sq ft).
The development will also include a five-star hotel and private residences.
