A restaurateur has said his company intends to spend €5 million renovating St Andrew’s Protestant Church in central Dublin and turning it into a licensed food court, banqueting hall and culture centre.
Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke promised Michael Wright he would be granted a seven-day drinks license before Christmas provided the redevelopment, mainly to the interior of the Suffolk Street building, is carried out in accordance with Dublin City Council planning permission.
Mr Wright is a member of the Howth family that run restaurants and a seafood business. He told Constance Cassidy SC that the proposal was modelled on the Marquette food hall the family operate at Dublin airport.
He said his company had already been approached with regard to setting up similar outlets at JFK airport in New York; Vancouver airport in Canada and Manchester and Birmingham airports in England.
Mr Wright said 70 chefs would be employed at Marquette at St Andrew’s. He said he was looking forward to the challenge of re-developing the listed building and was confident the work would be complete within nine months.
Neogothic
The currently vacant neo gothic church was formerly used as a tourist information centre by Fáilte Ireland and is fronted by the Molly Malone statue.
The Wright's company, Mink Fusion Limited, says it is hopeful the food court can grow to rival Cork's English Market.
Architect Joseph Doyle told the court the proposal primarily related to the interior of the building and as such there would be little or no visual impact on the surrounding streetscape.
While much of the space at the rear of the church is concealed it is a natural location for anti-social behaviour. Mink Fusion proposes to provide public access to the site for the duration of opening hours of the food hall but to secure the site during night-time hours to avoid mis-use and to preserve more than 100 historic gravestones spread around the perimeter of the site.
Judge Groarke granted Mink Fusion a Declaratory Order for a full seven-day publican’s license and restaurant certificate on the basis of completion within the parameters of planning permission.
Ms Cassidy said that in order to facilitate the granting of a new license an existing license from Main Street, Castleconnell, Co Limerick, had been extinguished.