A consortium whose members include Treasury Holdings principals John Ronan and Richard Barrett has won the right to build a national conference centre in a deal valued at €380 million, writes Barry O'Halloran.

The Government announced yesterday that the Spencer Dock Convention Centre Dublin Ltd had won the contract to build the conference centre.

The Spencer Dock company's shareholders are Mr Ronan, Mr Barrett and businessman and developer Harry Crosbie, whose interests include the Point Theatre venue in Dublin.

The company's chairman is Dermot Dwyer.

The company was one of two shortlisted for the contract in 2005. The other was the Anna Livia Consortium, whose main shareholder was Bennett Construction. A third player, led by the Michael McNamara Group, withdrew in 2005.

The conference centre will be located on Spencer Dock in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) on the north side of the River Liffey.

A statement from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism said that the contract would be a public-private partnership arrangement.

Under the terms of the deal, Spencer Dock Convention Centre Dublin will be required to design, build and finance the conference centre, and operate and maintain it for 25 years, after which it will revert to State ownership.

The department's statement said: "In return, once the construction of the centre is complete and it is open for business, the State will pay the company an annual charge, the maximum total cost of which over 25 years will be just under €380 million in present-day values."

Mr Dwyer said yesterday that the firm was "delighted" it had been chosen to build and operate the conference centre. "We have dedicated a huge amount of time, effort and resources to ensuring it will be seen as one of the world's leading convention centres," he said.

Work on the building will begin immediately and the centre is scheduled to be finished by 2010.

The centre will accommodate 2,000 delegates and will have 22 multi-purpose meeting rooms.