WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has told Congress it plans to spend nearly $700 million to buy a former hotel in Dublin, demolish it and build new buildings to turn the site into the new U.S. Embassy in Ireland to make. The State Department also announced that it had completed construction of a new embassy complex in Saudi Arabia as part of a revamp of its diplomatic facilities in the Gulf.
The department told lawmakers late Monday that it plans to buy the former Jury's Hotel in Dublin's upmarket Ballsbridge district for $171 million. The associated costs, including the design and construction of the new chancery and its furnishings, will bring the total to $688.8 million, according to a notice to Congress.
The 1.7 hectare estate is just a stone's throw from the existing US Embassy in the Irish capital, which dates back to the 1960s and the Foreign Office said it is “well beyond its useful life, too small for our operational needs, and is not functional in terms of layout.”
The new complex will include the embassy, a residence for naval guards, support facilities and parking, the release said. She did not provide an estimate for when the project would be completed, but estimated that the new embassy would employ 189 employees by 2028, at least 109 of whom would need office space.
The US has been planning to move its embassy in Dublin for more than a decade and Ballsbridge was the expected location after Irish authorities approved zoning and other changes last year.
On Tuesday, the department announced that it had completed construction of a new U.S. embassy on an 11.1-acre site in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that it acquired in early 2020. These costs, together with the construction of a new US consulate in Jeddah and planning for a new consulate in Dhahran, amounted to more than $1 billion.