Dunne lodges application for €300m Ballsbridge scheme

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Developer Sean Dunne has lodged a new planning application for the high-profile Ballsbridge, Dublin, site which he bought four years ago for a record €379 million. Last January, An Bord Pleanála shot down Mr Dunne’s original plans for what were the Jurys and Berkeley hotels sites in Ballsbridge, one of the capital’s more prestigious addresses.

Yesterday, D4 Hotels, the Seán Dunne-controlled company that now runs the hotels, submitted fresh plans to Dublin City Council, for a €300 million development at the site featuring a hotel, apartments, shops and public services, such as childcare facilities and a medical centre. The new plans provide for a tower of 15 storeys. The unsuccessful bid included a 37-storey tower, which was one of the reasons that the planning appeals board turned down the application.

The alternative that D4 Hotels is now proposing deals with the points raised by An Bord Pleanála, including reducing the maximum height and keeping trees and railings along the Lansdowne Road side of the site. It has rolled back on the original retail element of the plans and is limiting proposed shopping space to “neighbourhood” scale, about one-fifth of what was originally proposed, and cuts out offices and embassy use entirely.

The Irish Times