Some of the country's top property developers are hoping to benefit from rezonings as Dun Laoghaire Rathdown council draws up a new development plan.
Every five years, developers and landowners seek to cash in from lucrative rezonings when new county development plans are passed. Now Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, the most affluent county in Ireland, has begun work on its new development plan and some of the country's biggest developers have moved to benefit from rezonings which can increase the value of land by up to 800% overnight.
The Roche family, which formerly owned Roches Stores, has outlined plans to "redevelop, modify and enhance" the Frascati centre in Blackrock in a linked development with the owners of Superquinn, who will redevelop the Blackrock shopping centre across the road. The two centres will have "a combined strategy incorporating improved retailing" and residential, employment and public works.
Treasury Holdings, the development company owned by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett, has made several submissions for rezoning. In relation to the Stillorgan shopping centre, which it owns, it says the 25,000 square metres of retail space proposed under the existing plan is "overly restrictive" and wants it increased to 40,000 square metres. Treasury has been trying to redevelop the shopping centre for nearly a decade and finally received permission to replace it in 2006.
The company also owns 41 acres at Glendruid and Lehaunstown near Cherrywood. These are greenfield sites but Treasury wants some of the lands rezoned for residential use and says they should be "recognised as suitable locations for high density development".
Its Edencastle subsidiary, which owns two acres at South County Business Park, says that it has "failed to find an operator" for its planned aparthotel and now plans to develop offices on the site.
Treasury is also a shareholder in Derek Quinlan's Clyde Road Partnership which is developing the nearby Central Park office scheme. Its submission seeks higher-density development by means of taller buildings.
Bernard McNamara has revived plans for social, affordable and private housing on a site at Kilmashogue near Rathfarnham. He owns more than 100 acres there and is willing to provide 400 units for social and affordable use, half of which would come in the form of free sites. That equates to just under 40% of the housing proposed for the site.
McNamara and leisure entrepreneurs Colum and Ciarán Butler have asked for Dudley's Field in Dundrum, formerly part of the Airfield estate, to be rezoned as a neighbourhood centre which would allow the development of a mixed-use scheme to include residential, commercial recreational, retail and childcare uses. The site is currently zoned open space.
Also in Dundrum, Castlethorn Construction subsidiaries Crossridge and Lenridge have lobbied for council support for a "greater quantum of development and longer planning permissions". The planned investment in the completed scheme will be more than €1bn and will have created 5,000 jobs, the submissions states.
It says it plans to develop the Dom Marmion site, which it owns, to include a library and county council offices. It also says that Usher House, which it owns, and adjoining buildings have the potential for a landmark building.
Liam Carroll's Dunloe Ewart has stressed its opposition to the potential designation of his land at Cherrywood as a strategic development zone, saying it "would be ill-advised and inappropriate" and would further delay development there. Carroll also wants the reference to a 35,000 square-metre limit on Cherrywood's retail space removed as it will need a "critical mass of retail to succeed as a town centre" and proposes instead doubling that figure "as a minimum".
John Lally's Lalco, meanwhile, has made a submission of the future of the Irish Life site at Sandyford, which is the subject of a legal dispute, and the neighbouring FAAC site. It mainly supports the council's plan but draws attention to an infrastructural deficit. Cork developer John Fleming, meanwhile, wants more retail development allowed in the area.
Paddy Shovlin's Landmark Developments has lobbied for the removal of the Eastern bypass as an objective from the county development plan and is asking for the development of a women and children's hospital on the Fannin's site in the business estate. In the same area, Eircom says its site there would support a mixed-use development and its submission includes plans for a tower as part of a larger future development envisioned for the site.
Semi-state ESB says its 14-acre site in the area would be suitable for mixed-use development including offices and residential uses. In Carrickmines, the ESB's site at Ballyogan Road is a "significant redevelopment opportunity" which includes plans for new corporate offices for part of the organisation. The ESB plans to relocate more than 100 employees to new offices there but the exact amount has been blanked out in the submission. It will also centralise some other activities on the site.
"The funding required to consolidate operational works... and provision of ESB Networks' proposed headquarters and related activities, all to be located on the Ballyogan Road site, will be supported in part by the redevelopment of the Sandyford site," it states.
Hotelier and former publican Hugh O'Regan has made a submission for the 329 acres he owns at the former Kilternan Sports Hotel, which he is redeveloping to include additional bedrooms, a spa, recreational facilities, an aparthotel, restaurant, bar and biomass centre. He wants a master plan brought in to guide future development of the land he owns there.
The owners of the Droimsi lands at Kilternan, meanwhile, want their site of nearly 24 acres rezoned, mainly for medium-density residential development. Droimsi Developments' annual return shows it is owned by several parties including Tom Phillips & Associates and property industry veteran Kevin Kelly.
Michael Cotter's Park Developments is seeking to have some of the lands at The Park scheme in Carrickmines rezoned from enterprise and employment to a mixed-use development including residential, retail and office uses.
Cotter and the Jackson family, meanwhile, have had a master plan drawn up for the development of their 136 acres of land at Glenamuck and Kilternan near Carrickmines golf club which are currently in agricultural use. Most of the land would be given over to residential use if the rezoning is allowed.
In nearby Stepaside village, Park is hoping to have a site zoned for mixed-use development with shops and houses. It has already had talks with the council regarding the plans.
David Arnold, the developer behind private wealth management company D2 Private, has unveiled his plans for the future of Fernhill Estate at Enniskerry Road in Stepaside. The site of nearly 70 acres is entirely owned by Arnold and he plans to enhance and improve the house, gardens and meadow there with a view to its use as a public park. He will then seek to develop housing on the remaining 33 acres known as the Backlands.
Farther out, Cosgrave Developments has lobbied the council to allow the development of its Old Conna land bank in a way "which will maximise the use of the proposed Luas Green Line (B2)".
The council will now examine the validity of the proposed rezonings as it draws up its new development plan.
Sunday Tribune
www.buckplanning.ie
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