Planning permission granted for new Diageo headquarters in Dublin

Gordon Deegan

Property developer Ballymore has secured planning permission for a new HQ for Guinness owner Diageo in Dublin.

Dublin City Council has given the green light to Marbelsand Holding Ltd for the scheme that involves the repurposing of Brewhouse 2 building at the St James’s Gate brewery in central Dublin into a modern office space.

The building, which was once part of Guinness’s brewery operations, will extend to just under 13,000sq ft, with Diageo as the anchor tenant.

The Brewhouse 2 planning application is the first phase of a major masterplan for the wider St James’s Gate site that comprises a mixed-use scheme, dubbed the Guinness Quarter, that will be integrated into the wider Liberties area.

Diageo has appointed Ballymore to deliver the project and the mixed use scheme — currently before the Council in a separate planning application —includes 336 housing units, a hotel, a 300-seat performance space, a food hall and marketplace, commercial works spaces and more than two acres of landscaped public spaces across a 12.5 acre site.

The brewery operation at St James’s Gate is the home of Guinness and has a long-established history of brewing at the current location since 1759.

The repurposed office scheme is to be seven storeys in height — two storeys higher than the current five-storey Brewhouse 2 building.

The Council granted planning permission after its planner’s report stated that the proposed development would not injure the amenity of property in the vicinity and accords with the City Development Plan.

Shay Cleary Architects are designing the office scheme. In a report lodged with Dublin City Council, the firm stated the proposal “responds to the rich history of the existing building and retains the important conservation and heritage elements as pieces of the structure’s continuing history”.

The firm told the city council that “the proposals will ensure that this important and significant building continues in use into the future as an intrinsic part of the larger campus”.

A planning report lodged with the application by consultants, Brady Shipman Martin stated that the proposed redevelopment of the former No 2.

Brewery building “represents an important opportunity in the revitalisation of not only this building but a strategic positive intervention in the first phase of the redevelopment of the Guinness Quarter”.

The consultants stated that the scheme seeks to create a vibrant mix of uses, appropriate animation and activity at ground level "which will form a coherent part of the emerging masterplan for the Guinness Quarter" and will “seamlessly integrate” with the wider scheme.