Planning & Development:Air space above Tara Street and Connolly stations is in line to be developed on a public/private partnership basis, writes Tim O'Brien, Regional Development Correspondent

CIÉ is planning a major public/private mixed-use development of an 8.5-acre site to the rear of Connolly Station in Dublin.

The company is also planning a new 14-storey tower above Tara Street Station which is expected to be the subject of a planning application within three months.

The parent company of Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann plans to use the Connolly development to create a second long distance bus station for the city with interchange facilities for inter-city trains, Dart, local buses, and Luas.

The Tara Street development will facilitate the building of a new station concourse which would cater for almost 15,000 passengers per hour. The transport group said it needs both facilities to meet the demands of increasing public transport use under Transport 21.

In a repeat of a development formula already used to build an office block at Connolly in the late 1990s, CIÉ plans to grant "air rights" above the space it requires to a private sector partner.

In this way the transport group gains the facilities it needs while the private sector would get development space in an area adjacent to the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

The new development at Connolly will centre on the existing car-park at the station but will run to at least two basement levels and include a number of multi-storey buildings, some of them expected to be high rise - that is more than seven storeys.

CIÉ is in the final stages of a tender document through which it intends to engage a planner who will design an overall Connolly scheme taking in the public transport facilities, and the levels of residential, commercial and office space needed to make the development self-financing.

The company has the advantage that its car-park is in a prime location adjacent to the IFSC. A CIÉ spokesman said: "Air rights are a type of development right, giving the owner or renter of land the right to use and develop the empty space above the property."

He added that it was not the first time CIÉ had used this model to facilitate development at Connolly. "Air rights have been exploited at the Iarnród Éireann station, with an office development adjacent to the main station having been constructed in the late 1990s."

In the new development car-parking for Iarnród Éireann customers would be retained, most likely at basement levels.

The spokesman said detailed designs will be drawn up probably later this year and the scheme should be ready to go for planning permission in 2008.

As well as meeting its obligations under Transport 21, the station is across the road from the existing long distance bus station Busáras, which contributes to the creation of a major public transport 'hub' in the inner city area.

Meanwhile the company is also progressing plans for the redevelopment of Tara Street Station which are expected to result in a planning application within the next three months.

Tara Street Station is one of the country's busiest with a throughput of around 10 million passenger journeys a year.

This development of the 0.3-acre site, which has been costed at €125 million, was previously put forward but was delayed because of concerns about customer access.

However, after opening a new southern entrance, these difficulties appear to have been overcome.

The plans propose a 60.8 metre, 14-storey office tower above Tara Street Station.

This includes a new 12 metre high €20 million station concourse with 13,000sq m (139,931sq ft) of office accommodation above in a landmark tower feature.

The spokesman said the main focus "is to provide an improved concourse area that will cater for up to 14,500 passengers per hour at peak times".