Windmill Lane, the Dublin music studio made famous by U2, will be transformed into an office block, apartments and a number of shops as the redevelopment of the city’s docklands gathers pace.
Starwood Capital, the American investment fund, has paid €4.9 million to create a joint venture to develop the site with Hibernia REIT, the Dublin-listed property firm that bought the studio last year for €7.5 million.
Hibernia REIT said yesterday that the one-acre development site in the south Dublin docklands had planning permission for more than 11,000sq m of office space, about 650sq m of retail space and 15 residential units.
The companies said they aimed to complete the development of the site by the end of 2017. They said demolition work on the site was complete and a building contractor would be appointed.
“The development of the Windmill Lane site will deliver best-in-class new office space in central Dublin at a time of significant shortage, and we have made good progress since acquiring the site,” Kevin Nowlan, the chief executive of Hibernia REIT, said.
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Windmill Lane was opened by Brian Masterson and James Morris in the late 1970s and originally proved popular with traditional Irish acts such as Clannad and The Chieftains.
U2 used the studio to record songs for its early albums such as Boy and The Joshua Tree, and the studio also played host to acts including the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.
The site is the latest in a series of redevelopment projects in the docklands, which is located near the Silicon Docks and the International Financial Services Centre. A number of leading international technological, legal and financial firms, including Google, Facebook and State Street, have their European headquarters in the area.
Earlier this month, planning permission was sought to build offices, apartments and shops in the first phase of a massive redevelopment project backed by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Project Wave, a 5.4-acre site on North Wall Quay once owned by the developer Liam Carroll, is now being developed by Oxley Holdings, the Singapore-based firm, and Ballymore Properties, the developer run by Sean Mulryan.
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Work is also set to begin on a €150 million redevelopment of Boland’s Mill, the site on Barrow Street in the south docks where Nama plans to build three office and residential blocks.