A leading property developer has paid around €30 million for the headquarters of The Irish Times on D'Olier and Fleet streets in Dublin 2. It is likely to be redeveloped for offices and apartments. The selling price for the 0.44-acre site works out at €68 million an acre.

Ronan Webster of estate agent CB Richard Ellis had been quoting a guide price of over €25 million for the offices and former printing works where the newspaper has been based for the past 111 years.

Liam Kavanagh, deputy managing director of The Irish Times, yesterday expressed satisfaction at the price achieved. He complemented the selling agent and also thanked Liam McCabe of William Fry solicitors. The newspaper is due to move shortly to a newly built office block, Liffey House, at the junction of Tara Street and Townsend Street, which is currently being fitted out with the latest publishing technology. The newspaper has been printed for the past four years at Citywest where its printing operation was recently enlarged to handle an additional number of contract publications.

The block is one of the best known landmark buildings in the city centre, extending along most of D'Olier Street and part of Fleet Street - 8 to 16 D'Olier Street and 24 to 27 Fleet Street. The overall floor area comes to around 6,000sq m (64,584sq ft).