Vacant office block in Ringsend to be reused for 15 one-bedroom apartments
The provision of 15 new one-bedroom apartments in Ringsend could act as a signal to the government to fund more adaptive reuse projects around the city.
Councillors at the South East Area Committee meeting last Monday were presented with plans to turn a vacant office block at 14/15 Fitzwilliam Quay in Ringsend into 15 new homes. This building was acquired by Dublin City Council in March 2024 and aligns with their plans for adapting and refurbishing vacant office and commercial buildings around Dublin city for residential use.
The building was the former Dublin headquarters of the PR and marketing firm FleishmanHillard. Before being acquired by the council it was on the market at an asking price of €3,950,000.
Formal initiation for Part 8 planning is set to commence next March and construction should be completed by Q2 2028 and will serve tenants on Dublin City Council ’s housing waiting list. Since this housing project will reuse an existing building, the construction costs will be much lower and can be completed for approximately half the cost of a comparable new build.
The project was welcomed by councillors, however, many expressed disappointment that all 15 units were one-bedroom homes and said it’s important to consider the dire need for more two-bedroom and three-bedroom units to accommodate families on the council’s housing list. While a mixed tenure design was considered, the pre-existing building lent itself much better to one-bedroom apartments and the managerial response said the alternatives wouldn’t have been viable from a funding point of view.
The building is located close to Ringsend village and will include a landscaped community garden, bike shed, and pedestrian access. Dublin City Council plans to manage the site directly without the assistance of an Approved Housing Body.
Cllr Mannix Flynn said he is “glad to see office space being used in this way” and cited the huge amount of vacant office buildings around the city that could help alleviate the housing crisis . “I believe we should be very proactive in following suit with this kind of approach," he said.
Green Party Cllr Claire Byrne agreed that this could be a “brilliant demonstration project” that could signal to central government the benefits of adaptive reuse. “It’s a no-brainer in terms of housing provision, dealing with vacancy, and addressing our climate challenge,” she said.
While the project was welcomed by Cllr Pat Dunne, he stressed the need for larger apartments and said that since so much money is being saved that a mixed tenure design would have been ideal. “We are told it wouldn’t be viable, are we saying it’s no longer viable to house families in this city? Particularly in a project where we’re saving money on construction costs,” he asked.
However, Labour Cllr Dermot Lacey said “sometimes you have to be pragmatic.” He agreed that there is a need for more two and three-bedroom council houses, but said in this particular case it made sense to utilise the building in the manner that best made sense from a design perspective.
Mícheal de Siun from Desiun Architects stated this does not signal a situation where they will be “proposing one-bedrooms all over the city” but in this case it just “worked.” Cllr Flynn said it’s his understanding that other speculators looked into providing larger apartments at this site in the past and were not able to proceed with these plans.
He said the new apartments at Fitzwilliam Quay will go a long way toward addressing the “vast number of individuals looking for one bedroom apartments” on the council’s housing waiting list. However, he did ask that in the future, representatives be briefed on the possibilities for council-owned buildings “prior to the design stage.”
The timeline for this project is to formally initiate Part 8 planning in March, come back to the South East Area Committee with updated plans in June, and gain approval from the full council at their July meeting. Full details of Fitzwilliam Quay development can be found on the Dublin City Council website.
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