From this week’s Galway City Tribune – It was a landmark building right in the heart of the city . . . the former Connacht Tribune offices at 15 Market Street . . . and now it’s set to morph into a high-tech hub for many of Galway’s leading companies.

The €2.5 million revamp of the old newspaper building is expected to be completed by the end of this year providing desk space for 200 firms – most of them based in the city area.

According to Mary Rodgers, Chief Executive Officer of the Galway City Innovation District, the revamp and reconstruction of the building (being carried out by the MJ Conroy construction company) is on schedule to be completed by the end of the year.

“We are really delighted at how the project is turning out both on the outside and internally. This is a very exciting project for the city and already there is huge interest in the desk spaces available,” she said.

Since last March, the PorterShed group has moved into a premises on Bowling Green adjacent to the Market Street carpark in what was formerly a storage shed for the old Naughton’s business on Shop Street.

Separately, the Headspace development company, plan to develop a ‘market and event’ space with a 100-person capacity, at the back of the PorterShed project on Market Street – an area that once housed the Connacht Tribune printing works.

Now converted into a three-storey building, the new PorterShed premises will have a reception area, 200 desk spaces and conference rooms equipped with all the latest technology to accommodate global video conferencing.

An unusual feature of the development will also be a small rooftop space which can be accessed from the main building offering views across the city.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of this story, see the July 29 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.