Digital Hub in €40m expansion plan

Management in charge of the Digital Hub has opened dialogue with tenant companies in the hope of them taking up additional space to be made available through a €40m expansion of the Liberties-based campus.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte yesterday announced the expansion plan which is being supported by the Digital Hub Development Agency and ties in with the Government’s latest Action Plan for Jobs programme.

It will result in the creation of an additional 10,650sq ft of office space at the campus and a new housing development for 470 students. Some 300 construction phase jobs are also likely to be created.

“The Government’s Action Plan for Jobs asks for cross-cutting measures, with the potential to have a significant impact on job creation, and this development does exactly that,” Mr Rabbitte said.

Construction work is due to begin on the new office space phase in May, with building of the student accommodation starting in August. New offices will be available from May of next year, with the accommodation (marking London firm, Knightsbridge Student Housing’s first foray into the Irish market) ready from September 2016.

The agency is in discussion with existing on-site companies, who are keen on expansion, and is confident that the extra space will be filled.

Calling the plan an important milestone chief executive of the agency Edel Flynn said it will have a positive impact on the campus and The Liberties area.

“In the short-term, the development will bring much-needed investment and employment to this area. In the longer-term, it will see Dublin 8 animated by the presence of more digital entrepreneurs and workers, and hundreds of third-level students.

“This will contribute in a sustained way to the ongoing development of the local economy,” she said.

Around 70 firms are located at the Hub. The campus has catered for about 170 businesses creating about 2,000 jobs since its inception over a decade ago.