Dublin former hotel to be demolished for new US Embassy in Ireland

The Biden Administration has announced plans to spend $700 million on a new US Embassy location in Dublin. 

The State Department notified Congress on Monday, December 11 that it intends to buy the former Jury's Hotel in Ballsbridge, demolish it, and construct new embassy buildings on the site. 

The Department informed Congress that it plans to buy the former hotel for $171 million, with the cost of designing, constructing, and furnishing a new embassy taking the total costs to an estimated $688.8 million. 

The US Embassy applied to Dublin City Council to rezone the Jury's Hotel building in February 2021 after agreeing to buy the building from developer Joe O'Reilly's company Chartered Land. Dublin City Council approved the rezoning request last year. 

The site, which measures 4.2 acres, is located just a block away from the current US Embassy building, which opened in the 1960s and is "well beyond its useful life" and "too small" for the embassy's operational needs, the US State Department said, according to the Associated Press.

The US has been planning to move embassy locations in Dublin for over a decade.

The Associated Press reports that the new compound will include the US Embassy, a residence for Marine guards, support facilities, and parking facilities. 

The State Department did not give an estimate for when the new embassy would be completed but informed Congress that there would be 189 employees at the new embassy in 2028, 109 of whom would require office space.

The current distinctive embassy building in Ballsbridge has capacity for between 150 and 200 staff, while the new building will be designed to cater for up to 400 staff, according to an Irish Times report from 2021. 

Speaking in 2021 when rezoning plans were filed with Dublin City Council, the State Department said the current building could no longer cater to "current and growing demands" placed upon a modern embassy facility. It added that the US Embassy in Dublin "does not conform to new construction and security requirements issued by the state department in Washington DC."