Saturday 22 December 2007

Apartments planned for Hatch Hall

A former Jesuit student residence on Hatch Street in Dublin 2 is set to be transformed into a luxury residential development.

Six months after being refused planning permission to turn Hatch Hall into a five-star boutique hotel, Galway property developer Gerry Barrett is set to lodge a planning application to turn the listed building into a 36-unit apartment development.

Barrett acquired the building from the Jesuit community for over €16 million in 2004. It is currently in use as a 80-bedroom hostel for asylum seekers.

The 2,787sq m (30,000sq ft) redbrick building dates from the early 1900s and had been run by the Jesuits for around 90 years. It features attractive gardens, a courtyard and a chapel.

The plans drawn up by Edward Residential Assets, a subsidiary of Barrett's Edward Holdings, will involve the demolition of a two/three-storey building at Hatch Place to make way for a six-storey building - one storey lower than the previous hotel application.

Two additional storeys will be added to a four-storey building on Hatch Lane and 36 car-parking spaces will be provided at basement level.

The scheme, designed by Douglas Wallace Architects, will be firmly pitched at the top end of the market.

The majority of apartments will be two-bedroom units, including four duplexes.

The former chapel will be converted into two apartments, one of which will measure 120sq m (1,290sq ft) and will feature stained glass and an organ loft.

Barrett's previous hotel scheme was given approval by Dublin City Council, but this was overturned on appeal by An Bord Pleanála, which said the proposed hotel would involve altering the protected structure to an "unacceptable" level.

A proposed seven-storey addition to the hall would be "visually obtrusive" the board added.

Barrett, a former school teacher from Galway, started out building shopping centres before moving into building hotels and residential developments in Ireland and the UK.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

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