Council’s depot plan to free up housing sites

DUBLIN City Council is planning to sell off more than a dozen depots, including potentially lucrative housing sites on Collins Avenue in the north of the city and at Marrowbone Lane in the Liberties, to fund a new super depot in Ballymun close to the huge Ikea store.

The council is proceeding with a €25m plan to consolidate 19 depots on the city’s northside onto a single location, freeing up potential development sites and property that will be sold to finance the project.

The new scheme – which was initiated more than three years ago – will see 150 staff located at a new four-storey office block on a five-hectare greenfield site opposite the Ikea outlet.

The land is owned by Dublin City Council, but it is within the administrative area of Fingal County Council.

The development will incorporate a number of facilities, such as workshops and warehouses, as well as a recycling centre for public use.

The council plan is to fund the project through the disposal of the sites it will no longer require. They include facilities in a number of industrial estates and business parks, such as Ballymun Industrial Estate, the Newtown Industrial Estate in Coolock, and the North Ring Business Park in Santry.

Other facilities are located on Collins Avenue and in Ringsend.

The new project includes a four-storey car park with parking for 132 council vehicles and 200 staff cars, and a vast “salt barn”, capable of storing 2,200 tonnes of road salt.

At least some of the locations around the city that Dublin City Council intends to dispose of to fund the project are likely to be of interest to developers.

The large site off Collins Avenue, for example, is directly opposite Dublin City University and adjoins existing housing estates on two sides.