Dublin City Council is exploring ways to financially support the redevelopment of the former Baggot Street Hospital which has been left completely vacant since 2019.
The Royal City of Dublin Hospital built in 1832 on Upper Baggot Street, which is a large Victorian redbrick building closed its doors in 1987 but had been used for several healthcare services.
In recent times, it has fallen into disrepair. At recent meetings of the Council it was revealed that officials are teasing out the possibility of adapting the building into housing.
However, the project is viewed as being complicated, said Coilín O’Reilly, the council’s head of housing.
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“It’s not going to be quick and it’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be cheap,” said Mr O’Reilly. “It’s a very old building.”
The Council has a new “adaptive reuse” scheme, geared towards taking on vacant commercial buildings and turning them into homes.
DCC hopes to deliver 20 to 50 homes through adaptive reuse in 2024 and more than 100 homes in 2025.
The Adaptive Reuse unit in the Housing and Community Services Department was established in October 2022 to deliver social housing by adapting vacant commercial property in Dublin city.
As part of the suitability assessment phase, vacant, non-residential properties that may be suitable for conversion to housing were identified. Some state-owned properties were included in properties with potential for conversion.
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At a Council meeting this week Labour councillor Dermot Lacey questioned whether there was any update on the proposal to develop a housing initiative in the former Baggot Street Hospital.
In response, Owen Keegan, the Council’s CEO said: “The Adaptive Reuse unit has been in discussion with the HSE in relation to the property for a number of months, with the intention that the Adaptive Reuse unit in DCC could potentially manage the delivery of a conversion project, or that DCC could support the HSE in a potential redevelopment project.
At the last meeting held between DCC Housing Delivery and the HSE in March of this year, the HSE agreed to update DCC once a feasibility assessment of the site had been completed and decisions made regarding the portion of the site that may be used for a primary care centre.
“At present there is no update in that regard.”
However, a presentation to the Council by building and architecture experts earlier this year showed that in most cases, adapting large office blocks is no cheaper than building new housing from scratch and not is it efficient in terms of carbon emissions.
The HSE has been contacted for comment.