Restaurateur Patrick Guilbaud and the team behind food -emporium and restaurant Fallon & Byrne are understood to be in discussions to be potential tenants for the Victorian Fruit and Vegetable Market in Dublin's north inner city when it is redeveloped.
The developer chosen by Dublin City Council to transform the wholesale market located between the Four Courts and Capel Street, just to the north of the river Liffey, into a new retail development was announced yesterday, almost three years after the plans to redevelop the market were first published by former city manager, John Fitzgerald.
The Markets Regeneration Consortium is the council's preferred bidder and hopes to shortly sign contracts. The consortium is 50 per cent owned by Blackrock International Land, the property arm of Fyffes, 25 per cent by car dealer turned developer, Joe Linders and the remaining 25 per cent by developer Paddy Kelly.
It is understood that the fruit and vegetable market will remain as a market hall, with most of the new business devoted to retail and a smaller wholesale offering.
A new culinary school is also planned, which will possibly have involvement from Patrick Guilbaud, while Fallon & Byrne have been identified as possible anchor tenants for the market.
Next door on the old fish market site there will be apartments and an open square, with some office and retail space. An underground car park with about 300 spaces is also planned for the area.
Approximately 34 predominantly wholesale traders selling fruit, vegetables and flowers are currently tenants of the council in the market.
A spokesman for the Dublin Market Traders' Association, which represents the majority of the traders, said last night that neither the consortium nor the council had made any approach to them in relation to their future in the market.
The majority of traders have been renting pitches from the council for decades, with businesses passed down through some families for more than 100 years.
