UL hoping to lodge planning submission for city centre campus by end 2023 

University 'planning for a major educational, economic, cultural, and social footprint' at former Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield St

Former Dunnes Stores site to be developed by University of Limerick. Picture: True Media

University of Limerick has said it is aiming to lodge a planning submission for its landmark city centre campus by the end of 2023 and that it is now “fully engaged” in developing a masterplan on the site.

The university is collaborating with Limerick City and County Council on the proposals at the former Dunnes Stores building on Sarsfield St in the city, the acquisition of which has been subject of scrutiny over the price paid for it.

UL has now said urban artist Digo Diego will craft a mural that will span the full side of the building on the Honan’s Quay side of the campus.

It said any development of the building for a future use will be done sustainably and as a zero-carbon site.

In July, the university put out to tender for consultancy services on a campus master plan at an estimated cost of €350,000.

UL president Professor Kerstin Mey said: “We are planning for a major educational, economic, cultural, and social footprint in our city centre campus.

“Developing the plan and design of the future campus as a pivotal site on Limerick’s Waterfront will take some time but we will be at planning application stage by the end of next year.”

Following a call-out for potential interim uses of the building, Prof Mey said it received a “substantial number of thoughtful and enthusiastic expressions of interest”.

She added there would be public consultation on the longer-term use of the building, as part of the masterplan and framework process.

Consultants KPMG were commissioned last year to investigate the circumstances which led to UL acquiring the old Dunnes Stores building in Limerick city for €8m in 2019, despite it having been valued at just €3m two years previously.

In March of this year, UL informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it was not in a position to share the final report — which was delivered to stakeholders last November — due to a legal action having been taken concerning the contents of the report.

In May, the chancellor of UL said it was not “fair” to compare a previous valuation of the Dunnes Stores site in the city of €3m with the €8.3m it was eventually purchased for.

Mary Harney told PAC the €3m valuation from 2017 was a “desktop valuation... for internal purposes only” aimed at placing the Dunnes site on the derelict sites register with the purpose of having it acquired by the local authority by compulsory purchase order.

It emerged last week that €3.7m in capital funding for UL, which had been withheld by the Department of Higher Education on foot of concerns over the university’s financial governance, has now been released.

In a letter to the PAC, the department’s acting secretary general William Beausang said he was now “satisfied... that sufficient information has been made available by UL to allow this department to lift the current pause on capital funding”.

The university had been twice penalised by the department — in February and May of this year — for the ongoing issues regarding its financial governance.