Apartments likely to be built on site of historic Kildare town centre businesses

Two historic side-by-side premises on Naas’ main street have gone “sale agreed.”

The former Leinster Leader offices and print works premises along with the  long closed Gogarty’s shop and residence went on the market almost 14 months ago.

It's thought likely that apartments will be built there.

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The combined properties occupy 1.4 acres and extend from South Main Street to the Grand Canal harbour area at the end of Basin Street.

The sale includes former residential dwellings, one of which is a protected structure as is the Leinster Leader office. 

The Leinster Leader building, home to the eponymous newspaper for well over a century, was sold towards the end of 2023. 

It is understood that the property fetched €1m at a public auction arranged by Jordan Auctioneers at the Hotel Keadeen in Newbridge. 

Four parties bid for the property.

The Leader building was put on the market at the time by at least some of the shareholders who sold a stable of regional newspapers, including the Leader, for €138.6m.

The deal was made in 2005 not long before the financial health of newspapers across the globe began to decline.  

It is understood that the premises was bought by parties linked with Blessington Plant Hire, based at Crosschapel, Blessington, and the company was also associated with ownership of both the adjacent Gogarty's shop premises at South Main Street, Naas, and the  Former Ivy Inn, which was transformed into 33 South Main, a popular pub and restaurant venue.

The Leinster Leinster Leader building also housed Naas Printing, up to about two years ago before it moved to the former Alo Donegan’s electrical goods retail shop just around the corner at Limerick Road and which itself closed about eight years ago.

Some years before the Healy family also bought Gogarty's shop for a reported €1m.

Gogarty’s was operated by sisters Joan and Betty, initially as a hardware store, for many years. A fire, believed to have been started deliberately, caused extensive damage to the building interior in 2010.

This building is thought to date back to 1830.