Student accommodation block planned for former Independent newspaper HQ in Dublin

Gordon Deegan

British developer Summix will lodge plans in the coming days for a nine-storey student accommodation block on the former site of the Independent Newspapers HQ on Middle Abbey Street in Dublin.

The published statutory planning notice states that Summix IHD Developments Ltd is to lodge a Large Scale Residential Development (LRD) application with Dublin City Council, comprising a 316 student bed-space scheme.

The notice states that the standard and accessible 272 rooms will be provided in 42 clusters, ranging from five-bed spaces to nine-bed spaces at 87 to 93 Middle Abbey Street, known collectively as Independent House.

The student spaces are to be used as short-term lets during student holiday periods.

The scheme is to involve the construction of a part nine-storey over-basement building connecting into the retained protected structures.

Asked to comment on the planning application, Summix advisor in Ireland, Steve Cassidy said on Friday that the student housing planning application for the former headquarters of Independent Newspapers “will include the preservation and reuse of the two striking buildings on Abbey Street”.

He said: “The original printing hall to the rear is also to be preserved and used for cultural and community uses.”

He said that the rear site, which stretches to Princes Street at the GPO Arcade, will be redeveloped to provide the student bedrooms “with the ground floor on Abbey Street and Princes Street also providing retail accommodation”.

He said that the proposal also involves the widening and upgrading of Williams Lane linking Abbey Street and Princes Street.

Mr Cassidy said: ”Summix are very excited about this prime city centre project. When completed, the development will preserve the protected Independent House and Emerald Chambers buildings and the original printing hall and will also add badly needed accommodation to the significantly undersupplied student housing market in central Dublin.

“The addition of retail accommodation along with the students themselves will contribute to the vibrancy of this key city centre area".

On a timeline for the project, Mr Cassidy said: “Assuming planning is granted later this year or early next year, it is expected that construction will commence immediately with the building likely to open in 2028.”

The planning application comes almost one year after Summix Capital purchased Independent House from Penney's owner, Primark, in a deal understood to be worth about €9 million.

The building closed in the early 2000s and has been vacant for over two decades.