Trinity spent a total of €42 million on acquiring new buildings since 2015, including the €21 million purchase of the Connaughton’s Building in the Grand Canal Quay, the Business Post reported today.
Aside from the Connaughton’s Building, Trinity also spent €16 million on Stack B last year and nearly €2 million on the Iveagh Grounds in 2017. It also bought properties on Fenian St and Clare St.
In an email statement to The University Times, Prof Veronica Campbell, Trinity’s bursar, said: “Trinity has been fortunate in recent years to be in a position to invest in properties to support our strategic objectives in education and research.”
Connaughton’s Building houses Trinity East’s “Portal” – the new name for College’s Innovation Hub.
College has spent a number of years planning to develop Trinity East in the Grand Canal Dock. Trinity East – a five and a half acre site – will be situated there, and bound by Pearse St, Macken St, the DART line and Grand Canal Quay.
Meanwhile, Fenian St is a residential building with basement commercial space and three flats, all of which are let out to tenants.
The Clare St building houses staff from Trinity’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, while Stack B is home to staff from the Schools of Computer Science & Statistics and Engineering
The Iveagh Grounds is a sports ground with a pavilion building. It is also home to the Guinness Athletic Union (GAU).
In 2017, The University Times reported on the acrimonious negotiating process that led to the purchase of the Iveagh Grounds.
Over the three years of negotiations, the GAU increasingly felt like it was caught in the middle of cumbersome talks between the College and Diageo, the previous owners of the grounds.
Negotiations were often characterised by frustrations on the side of the GAU, with the club’s chairman at the time, Eddie Tyrell, complaining to The University Times, in November 2017, of being kept in the dark over several details about Trinity’s plans for the facility. The GAU claimed it was vital that the club was given information on the deal before an agreement was signed.
Correction: June 17th, 2021
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the GAU’s chairman was Eddie Tyrell. In fact, he is the former chairman of the GAU.
