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TRANSFORMING GRANGEGORMAN
A new €220m development at TU Dublin’s Grangegorman campus has officially opened
Two new major campus buildings costing €220 million in Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) were opened recently by Minister Paschal Donohoe. The newly opened East Quad and Central Quad on the university’s campus in Grangegorman are now home to over 10,000 students and 1,200 staff representing a range of disciplines in the Arts, Humanities and STEM subjects. The investment, the largest in Irish higher education in over a century, will see the University consolidate all its Dublin city activities on a purpose-built, state-of-the-art campus.
President of TU Dublin, Professor David FitzPatrick said the opening represents a significant landmark in the university’s ambition to deliver a world-leading campus in the heart of Dublin city. “Today, we celebrate the wonderful progress that we have made, yet we are less than halfway through the construction planned for this transformative investment for the University.” Commenting on the completion of the Grangegorman campus, the TU Dublin President added that the university generated much of the funding for the Grangegorman Campus by selling former campus buildings in Dublin City. “However, uncertainty in the commercial property market, coupled with a substantial increase in construction costs, are hampering plans for the development. We look forward to working with Minister Donohoe and his colleagues to find alternative funding solutions to progress our campus development plans and build on-campus accommodation, providing future TU Dublin students, including those sitting Leaving Certificate examinations, with a world-class university experience.”
The National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), part of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), acting on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Science as Approving Authority, managed the procurement of this PPP project with the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) acting as sponsoring agency. Andrew O ‘Flanagan, Director of the NDFA, said: “The completion of this large and complex project is great news for the students and staff of TU Dublin and for the wider community in the Grangegorman area and marks a significant milestone in the development of this new campus. The delivery of these state-of-the-art buildings on the TU Dublin Grangegorman site is the result of a successful collaboration over many years between the NDFA, TU Dublin, the Grangegorman Development Agency and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Science in partnership with PPP Co. Eriugena, Sisk, FCC and their supply chain partners. The NDFA is delighted to have played a part in delivering the facilities and would like to thank all stakeholders for their cooperation and support along the way.”
The PPP contract was awarded to the Eriugena consortium in March 2018. The Eriugena consortium was led by Macquarie Capital Group Ltd with construction undertaken by a joint venture between John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd and FCC Ireland Ltd. Facilities management services are being provided by Sodexo Ireland Ltd. The construction phase of the project was funded by the European Investment Bank, MUFG, Sun Life Investment Managers and Talanx Asset Management.
The East Quad, which accommodates almost 4,000 students, is the cultural hub of Grangegorman campus and a new multidisciplinary arts space for Dublin, featuring a 340-seat concert hall, an 80-seat black box theatre, an 80-seat recital hall and a range of exhibition spaces. Located beside the Green Luas Broadstone University stop and just 16 minutes from St Stephen’s Green, the building is an exciting new addition to the cultural life of the capital. The Central Quad, catering for approximately 6,000 students studying science, health, culinary arts, tourism, hospitality, computer science and engineering, is at the heart of the Grangegorman campus. Facilities include highly specialised laboratories, state-of-the-art kitchens and hospitality training areas and large lecture halls, including the 250-seater Intel auditorium.
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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine
