Whiteoaks & Philips Development
UCD in partnership with Pamarette is jointly promoting a mixed-use development of part of the university lands adjacent to Beech Hill (Whiteoaks) and at the former Smurfit headquarter site. The development will comprise a residential and office scheme with ancillary uses including a crèche, shop, café, community centre and public open spaces. The development will also facilitate the opening of a new route into the campus from Beaver Row for public transport services. The proposed total development site is 12.8 acres of which 4.9 acres are university property.
The principal reason for the involvement of the university in the development is to enable it to finance the purchase of the Philips Complex.
UCD acquired the Philips Complex in 2002. The Complex comprises 9.4 acres of land and 10,000m2 of useable buildings. The site is bordered by the campus on three sides, with independent access from the Clonskeagh road. The buildings on the site are currently being adapted for academic use.
The Philips Complex was acquired in order to provide cost effective accommodation for the university’s non-medical academic facilities located at Earlsfort Terrace. The purchase was linked to the acquisition of Earlsfort Terrace by the Government to facilitate the expansion of the National Concert Hall.
The main transfer of the Medical disciplines from Earlsfort Terrace into the new state-of-the-art Health Sciences complex at Belfield was completed in December 2006. The transfer of the other facilities out of Earlsfort Terrace such as Civil Engineering into Philips, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety into Health Science Phase 3, and Biosystems Engineering to the Agriculture and Food Science Centre was completed in early 2008.
At that stage, UCD will finally have realised its long-term physical development plan to locate the majority of its major teaching facilities at Belfield.
As a result of the Philips and Whiteoaks land transactions, the university replaced 4.9 acres at Whiteoaks with the 9.4 acres at Philips including the buildings to house the remaining academic facilities to be transferred out of Earlsfort Terrace and at equivalent cost.
