UTV Ireland today signed a contract with Brehon Capital Partners to secure the entire ground floor of Macken House, Dublin 1, which will be transformed into the new channel’s broadcast centre. UTV Media plc has a strong existing presence at Macken House, with FM104 located on the first floor and Q102, UTV Radio Solutions and UTV Sales based on the second floor of the building.
John McCann, Group Chief Executive, UTV Media plc said: “Macken House has been a great success for UTV since we first moved into the building five years ago. I am delighted that we have secured the ground floor for UTV Ireland, which enables us to keep all of UTV’s Dublin-based broadcasting teams under one roof.
“We have seen how beneficial this location is, in terms of surrounding amenities and transport links. The building will now be our Group Irish headquarters, with more than 200 staff located at the premises.
“Whilst UTV Ireland will be headquartered in Dublin, we are currently looking at regional news bureaux in Cork, Galway and Limerick, to facilitate our country-wide news team – ensuring that UTV Ireland will be close to breaking news, as it happens, throughout Ireland.”
UTV Ireland’s broadcast centre will consist of two studios, edit suites, corporate offices and news, administration, finance and sales areas. More than 80 UTV Ireland personnel, working across programming, news, sales, operations and corporate functions, will be based at the new UTV Ireland ground-floor facility.
Also commenting on today’s announcement, Michael Wilson, UTV Ireland Managing Director, said: “This is a significant milestone in the birth of UTV Ireland and we are delighted to be expanding our existing operations at Macken House. The expansion represents a multi-million euro investment in the technical build and we expect to be fully operational, in our new facility, in the coming months. In the meantime, we have secured a temporary working space in an adjacent building, which will house UTV Ireland’s growing team, until the fit-out is complete.”
The ground floor space at Macken House is being let by Brehon Capital Partners, who acquired the building in a joint venture with PIMCO as part of the Ulysses portfolio in December 2013.
Pauline Brady, Asset Manager for Brehon Capital Partners said: “We are delighted that UTV has decided to use Macken House as the location for its new broadcast centre and headquarters. We have now leased close to 50% of the space that was vacant in the Ulysses portfolio when we acquired it in December 2013, which is an indication of the continued demand for high quality commercial space in Dublin’s city centre and Docklands.”
