Digital Hubbub

Apparently IDA Ireland and the government have set out in a new plan, in consultation with the management of the Digital Hub for the current site to expand by about three times its existing size.

The Digital Hub Development Agency’s (DHDA) new plan of action envisages an almost threefold expansion of the centre for digital media in the Liberties area of Dublin from a current 92,500 square foot footprint to 250,000 square foot by 2012.

The aim is to create a “complete city quarter based on digital media enterprise”, and build on the construction work and local community learning initiatives which were completed under the former development plan that expired last year.

In terms of tenants, the development plan sets out ambitious targets for 100 companies with a workforce of 900 to be ensconced in the Thomas Street campus by 2008, and up to 200 companies with a maximum 3,000 staff by 2012. The Digital Hub is consulting with IDA Ireland and Forfas to achieve these goals and the centre currently has 76 high-tech firms as tenants, including start up Zamano and internet retailing giant Amazon.

“The growth of the Digital Hub in 2006 has consolidated our reputation, in Ireland and abroad, as one of Europe’s most desired locations for companies in the digital media sector,” said DHDA chief executive Philip Flynn.

“Approximately 25 percent of companies currently located in the Digital Hub are foreign direct investment. We expect this to rise significantly as the benefits of locating in the Digital Hub continue to attract international digital media companies,” he said.

Since 2000, the centre of excellence for digital media has received over EUR12.4 million in exchequer funding. By 2012, the Digital Hub expects to have net assets of EUR110.8 million, which it says will be a 52 percent return on investment for the Government. The Digital Hub is relying on another EUR4 million in public monies for the next two years, but after that it aims to rely on commercial income and sponsorship deals. Projections in the development plan point to a cumulative commercial income of almost EUR1.7 billion between 2007 and 2012.

An important part of the Digital Hub’s remit is to promote learning initiatives, particularly throughout the local community in the surrounding Liberties and Coombe areas. An external audit of these learning initiatives carried out by UCD and Farrell Grant Sparks will be released next month.

“All the while, as we have been getting the project off the ground and implementing our enterprise aims, some of the Digital Hub’s greatest success has been at community level. In particular, a number of learning programmes are operating in 17 local schools and a number of local community groups in the Liberties. Digital Media education for the local community is a key delivery of the project, and we continue to deliver on this remit everyday,” said Flynn.

Meanwhile, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural resources is to set up a new EUR25 million National Digital Research Centre within the Digital Hub. The Government had previously backed the Media Lab Europe project on the same site in 2000 in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the tune of EUR35 million. The facility closed in 2005 and a report from the Dail’s high-powered Public Accounts Committee (PAC) admonished the Government for a failure to protect public funds.

Does anyone have any more details on this and what shape it could take?