Johnny Ronan’s property group has questioned the absence of residential units in the planned €100 million rejuvenation of St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin.
In a submission on the planning application by DTDL Ltd, Ronan Group chief executive Rory Williams has told Dublin City Council that “the redevelopment of a highly accessible city-centre site without provision for residential use raises questions as to whether the proposal adequately supports compact growth objectives and the delivery of a living city”.
Mr Williams said the inclusion of residential use in the scheme “would provide a stable, long-term occupation of the city centre site and contribute to its social and economic resilience”.
As part of a five page submission, he noted that the employment-led scheme, with all its upper floors dedicated to office accommodation, “delivers functional intensity but does not meaningfully contribute to permanent population or residential presence in the city centre”.
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In total, the council has received 58 submissions on the plan, with the bulk of those opposed to the application.
DTDL, which owns the centre, lodged revised plans for the redevelopment of the landmark shopping centre in December five months after An Coimisiún Pleanála refused planning permission for its €100 million revamp.
The designers of the scheme state that their revised proposal will make an enduring contribution to the city’s built environment, setting a new benchmark for brownfield regeneration in the heart of Dublin through its “exemplar standard of urban design”.
In a blow to the revised rejuvenation scheme, however, two of the three parties that successfully appealed the original permission granted in December 2023 to An Coimisúin Pleanála – An Taisce and author and environmental activist Frank McDonald – have opposed the new plan in comprehensive submissions.
“The existing shopping centre has been there for nearly 40 years and is in need of rejuvenation, but it does not deserve to be demolished and replaced by an overscaled new building,” Mr McDonald wrote.
“Even architects of the quality and status of O’Donnell + Tuomey cannot wave a magic wand to make this behemoth more palatable to the public, nor should they be expected to do so.”
Dublin city Green Party councillor, Claire Byrne said that the proposed replacement building was generic in nature, had already been refused and would further erode Dublin’s architectural character and heritage.
