Laois County Council has published a tender for an architect-led design team to refurbish the Fort Protector in Portlaoise as a museum, exhibition and indoor performance space, a procurement that matters to building and architecture professionals because it opens a conservation-led commission with a staged programme of works. Consideration was disclosed at €11.5 million, with €7.5 million granted last month through the Town and Cities Regeneration Fund.

Laois County Council is the local authority and client, which has assembled the town-centre site and now seeks consultants for the Granary, Event Centre and Old Barracks.

The tender documents set out a phased timeline, with the toilet block tender in February 2027, the Old Barracks tender in May, and construction due to start by August 2027 on one of those packages.

The Granary tender will not issue until December 2027, with works aiming to begin in May 2028, and the building is required to generate an energy dividend under the council’s Portlaoise Low Carbon Town Initiative.

The council also said a temporary display model of the Portlaoise Plane must be built in the Granary by March 2027, ahead of the 2028 centenary of the Bremen flight.

The structural driver is the €409 million regeneration fund, which succeeds the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund and targets vacancy, dereliction and civic infrastructure, with Portlaoise’s Fort project among almost 120 supported schemes.

For the sector, the timing matters because the council’s Part VIII approval in June, reported by the Leinster Express, retained the Granary and added a new entrance and outdoor performance space, so consultants will inherit a consented concept.

The Granary extends to 1,800 sq m, and the tender wording points to a full mechanical and electrical retrofit and a roof assessment, work that rewards conservation experience.

The broader implication for the sector is that staggered tenders across several packages spread work over 2027 and 2028, giving design teams and contractors a multi-year heritage pipeline in the midlands.

Source: Ireland Live / Leinster Express / Laois Today / TravelExtra