Vacancy Watch: The former school of wrestling in Phibsborough

There’s a glowering Lucha Libre wrestling mask spray-painted onto the black metal doors of a long warehouse on Saint Ignatius Road by the Royal Canal in Phibsborough.

Until March 2024, this warehouse behind the red terraces was home to the School of Irish Wrestling.

The school wasn’t in there long, just a bit more than a year and a half, says Joe Carberry, the former WWE wrestler and co-founder of Over the Top Wrestling, the promotion company affiliated with the school.

Before that, “It was an old furniture factory where they made furniture,” he says.

On the side of the warehouse, with its corrugated roof, is a wooden sign so warped that one end curls up like a wave. P. Spain and Sons Ltd, it says in peeling blue letters.

Now though, it is empty.

And on 12 December, Dublin City Council added it to its derelict sites register, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The register lists the site owners as Alan Merriman of Vernon Investments Ltd/Beechwood Avenue Investments Ltd and Patrick Gilroy of Acumen and Trust DAC.

Neither director responded when asked via email on Monday morning about their plans for the property.

Planning records show that, over the past two decades, its owners have had different ideas to redevelop it – for housing and for artists studios.

Last November, Eastpoint BP Investments Ltd – a company which shares a director with Vernon Investments Ltd – seemed to be looking at whether it could be used temporarily as accommodation for people seeking asylum, planning records show.

But given its condition, that may not be viable, says Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll. “International protection people need quality accommodation as well.”

Dublin City Council isn’t currently considering buying the warehouse, a spokesperson said.

Even wrestlers need chairs

Founded in 1968, P. Spain and Son’s Ltd registered its address at the warehouse on the banks of the Royal Canal in February 1979, according to company documents.

But they had the warehouse for a good few years before that, says John Dunne, who grew up and lived on the street from the mid-60s to the late-90s.

“It was something you’d pass by everyday on the canal,” he said.

When Dunne was twelve in 1973, he got a job sweeping up, he says. “They’d prepare the furniture there, and you’d come out choking from all the sawdust.”

It was a summer job, he says. “I didn’t last long.”

Two members of the Spain family resigned from P. Spain and Sons’ board of directors in July 2001. Later, the new directors looked to change the use of the warehouse.

In December 2003, Dublin City Council gave permission to Graceavon Holdings, P. Spain and Son’s parent company, to demolish the factory and build seven flats in three storeys.

At the time, the land however was zoned Z9 for recreational amenities, open space and green network. So, An Bord Pleanála approved an appeal by local residents against the council’s decision in May 2004.

Graceavon rejigged their plans, proposing five flats in two storeys, seven art studios and a tea room. The council green lit that in July 2006.

But An Bord Pleanála again overturned the council’s decision in February 2007, citing zoning and the visual impact of the development, as well as the foreseeable increase in traffic.

Fifteen years later, the warehouse became the home of the School of Irish Wrestling in July 2022. But, they wrapped up training there in March 2024 and relocated to Clondalkin, Carberry says.

To the future

On 12 November, Eastpoint BP Investments Ltd – whose director Ciaran McIntyre is also Vernon Investments Ltd’s director – asked the council to determine whether it would need “change of use” planning permission to use the building as accommodation for people seeking asylum.

On 9 December, Dublin City Council said – based on provisions in the planning and development regulations –  it was exempted from needing to apply for a change of use.

Still, the future use is unclear.

O’Driscoll, the Social Democrats councillor, says she is a bit skeptical when she sees these exemptions being sought. “You don’t have to pay the dereliction levies if you are seen to be moving the building into use.”

She thinks that exemptions like this can be used for “staving off” dereliction levies, O’Driscoll says.

According to the Derelict Sites Act (1990), if a local authority is satisfied that an owner intends to develop a property, and has granted planning permission, the owner can enter into a bond, instead of paying the levy.

That bond is a guarantee, secured by a bank or insurance company, that if the development isn’t completed within five years, then the owner must pay all levies.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said it would consider buying any site on the derelict sites register, but it doesn’t currently have plans to buy the warehouse.

That said, on 26 March, the council held a public meeting in Coolock Library with a view to opening a new arts centre in the northside of the city.

The council was looking to set up a working group to identify sites and possible funding streams for the new arts centre in the North Central area, says a statement from the time.

The group would look for suitable sites and buildings and possible funding streams, the statement says.

A spokesperson said that the warehouse on Saint Ignatius Road is just outside of the area it is targeting. But “the building in question can certainly be considered”, they said.

Regardless, the warehouse would need fixing up, says O’Driscoll.

“Artist work studios have requirements as well. They need heating and electricity, natural light,” she says. “So we wouldn’t be looking at putting every warehouse down the arts route.”

She would like to see the owners talk to the council about its future, she says. “They should be having conversations with us, and even if we don’t buy it off them, could we support them in developing it?”