URBAN EXPRESSION AND THE GRAND CANAL INNOVATION DISTRICT
The Innovation Hub will provide space for entrepreneurs, start-ups and innovation teams from large corporates. It will be the venue for organised weekly events to bring together academics, start-ups, the local community and the enterprise community, animating and programming the Grand Canal Innovation District.
Trinity has submitted the planning application with a view to having the new space fully operational in the first quarter of 2022. The Grand Canal Innovation District, the plan for which received Cabinet approval in January 2020, will see the clustering of research institutes, entrepreneurs and educational institutions, high growth companies and tech and creative start-ups in a concentrated urban environment.
This combination of stakeholders working together will act as a magnet for research and will drive innovation, contributing to Ireland’s economic recovery in the years ahead. Trinity will act as the anchor tenant in the centre of the District providing a connection to a talent pipeline of graduates, an innovation engine and a social and cultural centre.
The first phase of the district incorporates the following elements-
A 5,500 square metre Innovation Hub with space for early-stage start-ups, research-active corporates, a meeting space to activate the innovation community in Dublin and a programme of activities for people who work and live in the local community.
A new public square with café and seating, located on what is currently a car park.
The Innovation Hub will incorporate the landmark tower located on the campus.
Located on the former site of L Connaughton & Sons Ltd in Grand Canal Dock, the Innovation Hub is one of several planned developments in the District, which will be transformed over the next ten years. The development is supported by two government grants – The Regional Enterprise Development Fund as enabled by Enterprise Ireland and the Urban Regeneration Development Fund as part of Project Ireland 2040.
Google has an office complex on Grand Canal Quay which is in the Grand Canal Harbour area of Dublin Docklands.
The Grand Canal Docks first opened in 1796. At the time they were the world’s largest docks. They fell into decline within just a few decades, due mostly to reduced canal usage with the arrival of the railways. The landscape was overwhelmed by Dublin Gas Company’s mountains of black coal, along with chemical factories, tar pits, bottle factories and iron foundries. However, bakers and millers maintained business along the southern edge of the inner basin. By the 1960s, the Grand Canal Docks were almost completely derelict.
Around 1987 it was decided that Hanover Quay was too toxic to sell. Regeneration began in 1998, when Bord Gáis sold the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) the former gasworks site located in the area between Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Hanover Quay, for €19 million. The DDDA spent €52 million decontaminating the land, even though the likely return was estimated at just €40 million.
The decontamination took place under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, between 2002 and 2006. The process involved constructing an underground wall eight metres deep around the affected area, and the contaminated soil being dug out and removed. By the time the decontamination was finished, an inflated property bubble and increased demand in the area (brought on, in part, by the decision by Google to set up its European headquarters nearby), allowed the authority to sell the land for €300 million. The DDDA injected some of its new funds into the area’s infrastructure including seats, street lighting, and civic spaces.
A number of significant developments have happened since involving the construction of millions of euros worth of real estate, the arrival of several thousand new residents, and the establishment of what is now sometimes known as Silicon Docks.
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