For the last 19 years the City Arts Centre has lain dormant on Dublin’s City Quay. The building, which once was a rehearsal space used by U2, is an eyesore – it is boarded up, covered in bad graffiti, and badly damaged internally from a 2011 fire.

Last year the site was acquired by Ventaway Ltd, a joint venture vehicle controlled by thirty-one-year-old developer David Kennan and Barry English, the founder of Winthrop Engineering.

Last week Ventaway revealed for the first time its design for the redevelopment of the centre. It is ambitious – a 24-story building stretching to 108 metres. The mixed-use development will house offices, an arts centre, a cafe, gym and two basement levels. The architect of the 36,000 square metre project is Mahoney Architecture, a firm which previously worked on Kennan’s first major development, the Greenside Building on Cuffe Street in Dublin 2.

A report completed for Ventaway by KPMG Future Analytics (KPMG FA) reveals the economic impact the project could have in Dublin. KPMG acquired Future Analytics, a specialist economics and planning consultancy, in October 2020.

KPMG FA estimated that “direct spending from construction and the supply chain” to deliver the project will contribute “circa €232 million to national economic output”.

It estimates the direct spend on the project will contribute €155 million to the economy with an additional €76 million in indirect spend. About 520 jobs will be supported during its two-year construction both directly and in the supply chain, with €3.8 million in pay related taxes being generated for the exchequer during over that period.

“Given that the proposed development will accommodate 22,587 sq metres office space, we estimate the potential for 1,888 full-time equivalent jobs upon completion of the development,” KPMG FA said, adding that this number could rise depending on hybrid working models.  

“The George’s Quay tall building cluster”

An image of the proposed development.

Ventaway is also being advised by Urban Strategies, an international consultancy that has worked in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, London, Hong Kong.

Urban Strategies concludes the new building “meets all the assessment criteria for enhanced height, density and scale as set out in the draft Dublin City Development Plan”. It said the proposed development was a landmark tall building that was an “appropriate, well-designed and attractive addition to Dublin’s cityscape”.

 It said the building had a sustainable green design that is “responsive to a careful visual impact analysis” of the city around it. “The City Quay proposal also contributes to the successful resolution of the urban design of the George’s Quay tall building cluster by strongly marking its easterly extent, just as the southerly and westerly extent are defined by the Hawkins St and Tara St buildings respectively,” it said.

“City Quay therefore contributes to the objectives of all applicable planning policy. It satisfies the performance criteria for enhanced height, density and scale, and those for landmark tall buildings. It is an elegant new building that will contribute to the functional success and the aesthetic enjoyment of Dublin.”

Here is a selection of other images of the proposed development: