WHOLESALE TRADERS SET to leave Dublin’s historic Fruit & Vegetable Market ahead of its closure this Friday have been compensated in the region of €5 million by Dublin City Council, TheJournal.ie understands.
Last week, it was confirmed that the Victorian market off Capel Street will close next week for refurbishment, 16 years after its redevelopment was first planned.
A number of the remaining wholesale traders at the market – some whom have traded there for several decades – were seeking an extension from the council but that the local authority did not agree to this and will close the market as planned on Friday 23 August, TheJournal.ie reported last week.
In order to carry out restoration works on the building, Dublin City Council requires vacant possession of the building.
According to a council spokesperson, the council “has either reached agreement with the remaining traders or has offered alternative temporary accommodation for the duration of the refurbishment works”.
Traders at the market had the option of reaching a financial settlement with the council or being relocated during the refurbishment.
“The building must be vacated in order to carry out conservation work, upgrade facilities and deliver a modern food market,” a spokesperson told TheJournal.ie.
The council has reached a compensation agreement with the remaining traders, understood to be in the region of €5 million, with individual settlements varying according to turnover and square footage. The figure was first reported by RTÉ this morning.
The council has said traders who opted for temporary accommodation elsewhere in Dublin will have an option to relocate to the redeveloped market at Smithfield upon completion.
Opened in 1892 to facilitate Dublin’s market traders, the council plans to advertise for expressions of interest in the coming months for the refurbishment and conversion of the Victorian redbrick building on the city’s northside into a retail and commercial space run by a private operator.
The council – which owns the building – plans to issue a tender for the future management of the redeveloped space.
The council was granted planning permission for the refurbishment of the building on Mary’s Lane in Dublin 7 in 2015. In recent years, the council has pressed ahead with plans for the historic market, which is located between Capel Street and the Four Courts.
Last year, Dublin City Council assistant chief executive Richard Shakespeare told a meeting of city councillors: “People talk about the English Market in Cork, but we want a market with a quintessential Dublin feel. Something with a little bit of the magic dust of Dublin”.
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