There was huge news today for the Irish film industry, when South Dublin County Council agreed to sell 48 acres of land at Grange Castle Business Park, near the Clondalkin and Lucan area in Dublin 22 to Lens Media to build the country’s largest film and TV studio.
Lens Media, backed by Windmill Lane founder James Morris and producer Alan Moloney intends to seek planning permission to develop a huge media park on the site, consisting of 12 sound stages, 100,000sq ft of workshop space and 100,000sq ft of offices. The media park will join neighbours Google, Pfizer and Microsoft who also work from the Grange Castle location.
The project has been in development for many years, with celebrities like Bono,, Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy advocating for the studio, at one stage the studio was trying to develop land at the Poolbeg strategic development zone on the Irish glass bottle site.
Speaking about the exciting development a spokeswoman for Lens Media said “The Grange Castle Media Park will be a world-class facility. Its size and specification will help to propel Ireland into a major world-class player in the screen creative industries, creating thousands of long term and sustainable jobs for Dublin, and all over the country.”
When complete the studio will provide 1,800 direct jobs, while construction of the facility is expected to generate over 1,200 jobs.
Video highlighting the current Grange Castle Business Park
Grange Castle Main Video from South Dublin County Council on Vimeo.