Hotel operator Premier Inn has lodged plans for a 162 bedroom hotel in the Sandyford business park and is to expand further in Dublin and beyond in the coming years.
According to the planning application PI Hotels and Restaurants Ireland Ltd lodged the plans for the eight-storey hotel on Arkle Rd.
A planning report lodged with the application to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council said that Premier Inn “aims to continue its expansion in Dublin and beyond over the coming years providing much needed quality, yet affordable, visitor accommodation for business travellers and tourists alike”.
Premier Inn, owned by Whitbread, is the UK’s biggest hotel brand and the report by planning consultancy, Tom Phillips + Associates noted that Premier Inn opened its first hotel in Dublin on South Great George’s Street in November 2021 after a €19 million redevelopment of a historic and long-vacant site.
The report said that “a further four hotels in Dublin City have since followed, located at George’s Street, Newmarket Square, Castleforbes and Gloucester Street South”.
Tom Phillips + Associates’ Sine Kelly added: “In addition, construction is under way for a new Premier Inn at Twilfit House, at Middle Abbey Street. Premier Inn recently opened its first hotel outside of Dublin in Cork City earlier this year.”
Advancing the case for the planned hotel, Ms Kelly said that the proposed development would deliver 162 hotel bedrooms “in a strategic, well-connected location in Sandyford business park that is proximate to a number of transport networks, including the Luas, multiple bus routes and the M50″.
She said that the proposal represented a positive planning scenario “providing contemporary hotel accommodation on a site situated among office, residential and commercial uses in SandyfordBusiness District, a prominent economic hub and commercial area located in south Dublin”.
Ms Kelly that the proposed hotel’s location in the heart of Sandyford would “be attractive to the wide variety of companies located in the business park by significantly improving the offer of accommodation for business travellers”.
Ms Kelly states that the hotel will also be appealing to visitors of south county Dublin, who may want to travel further southeast and across the wider Leinster region.
Ms Kelly states that since a planning refusal for an office development on Arkle Rd in 2008 infrastructural improvements have been instrumental in enabling the district to support significant development and other applications for large scale development lodged in Sandyford.
Ms Kelly states that as such, the issues raised in that refusal for development on the subject site are no longer relevant.
“These improvements have solidified Sandyford Business District’s role as a central hub for economic growth, employment, and associated development,” she said.
A decision is due on the application next month.
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