Sunday 7 September 2008

Dunne seeks to rezone site

DEVELOPERS Sean Dunne and Sean Mulryan are to seek the rezoning of the former Irish Glass Bottle Company's employee sports and social club in Clonskeagh in Dublin 14.

The developers' Zapi Properties vehicle bought the site in 2003 after the company that operated it ceased trading the previous year.

The members had then put the site on the market with an asking price of more than €20m. The site is currently zoned for open space and recreational amenities but the developers have told Dun Laoghaire Rathdown that they want the land zoned "to protect and/or improve residential amenity". The developers believe that "zoning of additional lands for residential development will aid supply, and also aid affordability by increasing competitiveness by developers and suppliers".

The developers also add that "in the current housing climate, developers may find it more advantageous to build houses than to build apartments, especially on sites at some remove from Dublin city centre".

Meanwhile, Dunne's plans for a €1bn development on the site of the former Jurys Doyle and Berkeley Court hotels will be the subject of an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanala this week.

The hearings start on Tuesday into Dunne's plan to develop apartments, a hotel, an embassy building and a shopping centre on the site and will take place at Croke Park.

Dunne meanwhile has withdrawn his application to develop a new office block on the site of Hume House in Ballsbridge in Dublin 4.

The council was notified of the decision last Monday. A note on the council's website said the proposed development would be "overbearing", "visually obtrusive" and "detract from the visual amenities of the area".

It would "seriously injure the amenities of the area and of property in the vicinity and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area".

€20m

Clonskeagh site's original asking price

€1bn

Total cost of Dunne's Ballsbridge development on the site of Jurys Doyle and Berkeley Court hotels

Sunday Tribune

www.buckplanning.ie

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