Dublin City Council has approved a 15-storey residential tower at the former UCD veterinary college site in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, as part of a €600 million mixed-use development.
Developer Ray Grehan, managing director of Glenkerrin, who paid €171.5 million for the 2.2 acre site in 2005, has got planning permission for a 40,000sq m (430,000sq ft) development called Number One Ballsbridge. This will include 109 luxury apartments, up to nine storeys of offices, an arts and cultural centre, high-end boutiques and new urban streets.
The decision will be of interest to a number of developers who own property in the area, particularly Seán Dunne, who is proposing a mixed-use development with a 37-storey element for the adjacent Jurys/Berkeley Court site. Mr Dunne, who owns Hume House to the west of the veterinary college, wrote a letter to the council supporting Mr Grehan's development, saying the uses would complement those proposed on his site and his vision for the Jurys site "as a new world-class urban quarter".
Mr Grehan's planning application was watched with interest given that it was submitted two months after councillors rejected a controversial local area plan for Ballsbridge that would have allowed high-rise development of up to 22 storeys. Councillors rejected "the intensification of development and rezoning of land in Ballsbridge" when they voted against the local area plan in June, and when they subsequently passed motions recommending the council reject both Mr Dunne's and Mr Grehan's plans as being too high.
The council has agreed, in principle, to look into devising a new area plan for Ballsbridge.
As well as a 15-storey luxury residential tower with an internal orangery overlooking a square, Number One Ballsbridge will have three office buildings, including a glazed eight-storey headquarters with an atrium fronting on to Shelbourne Road. Designed by HKR architects, the highest street-facing building is a nine-storey office block on Pembroke Road. A new pedestrian street called New Pembroke Street will link Shelbourne Road and Pembroke Road. There will be 2,787sq m (30,000sq ft) of speciality shops and 18,580sq m (200,000sq ft) of offices.
It is thought likely the decision will be appealed to An Bord Pleanála given that Dublin City Council received about 80 submissions and objections.
