A call for tenders to construct the complex was put out, and the winning tender was by Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Liebe, an immigrant from Saxony who had previously constructed the Bulgarian Houses of Parliament in Sofia and worked on the Budapest Opera House. The tender price was £46,000, of which £43,000 was the cost of the building alone. The construction contract between Molloy and Liebe was signed in November 1902, and Heinrich Schmidt was appointed as foreman for Liebe. Deep excavation of the site for the building's foundations and basement started almost immediately.