Hoardings have been erected around several buildings at the edge of College Green in Dublin, once earmarked for development as a Hilton hotel, in a preliminary move to keep alive planning permission for a major office scheme on the site.
Treasury Holdings, the company behind the £30 million scheme, confirmed yesterday that it was now "on site" and that work would start shortly on the demolition of five buildings and the gutting, with facade retention, of several others.
But Lancefort, the company set up by prominent conservationists to oppose what they regard as damaging developments, warned that it was "exploring a number of legal avenues as a matter of urgency" to block any work proceeding on the site.
A spokesman for Lancefort, which is awaiting a High Court judgment on its earlier action against the Hilton hotel development, said that if work did get under way, people would begin to see what a "devastating" impact it would have on the fabric of the city.
Pending delivery by Ms Justice McGuinness of her judgment, expected early in the new year, he said Lancefort would target AIB, as owner of the site, over "its role in what is potentially the worst demolition in Dublin for 15 years".
The site includes several important historic buildings, including the former Scottish Widows insurance office, the one-time headquarters of the Provincial Bank of Ireland on College Street and the 1930s neo-classical Pearl Assurance building. For the past six months, Lancefort has been locked in a legal battle with An Bord Pleanala over the validity of its decision to approve the Hilton hotel scheme on this triangular site, which is bounded by College Street, Fleet Street and Westmoreland Street.
In November it was revealed that Hilton, a division of the Ladbroke's leisure group, had pulled out of the proposed development, citing an alleged drugs and crime problem in the area. However, the continuing legal uncertainty was also a factor.
Treasury Holdings was then left with no alternative but to revert to an earlier plan for a major office scheme, exceeding 100,000 square feet, for which An Bord Pleanala granted permission in 1993. Under the five-year rule, this permission is due to expire in June.
In order to keep the permission alive, Treasury Holdings would need to show that substantial works had been carried out on the site with a view to implementing it.
It would then be a matter for Dublin Corporation to decide whether to grant an extension beyond June.
Since the office development involves a similar level of demolition and facade retention as the hotel scheme, it makes sense for the company to proceed with these works even though it is still in something of a quandary about what precisely will be built on the site.
Following Hilton's decision to withdraw, it is understood Treasury had some discussions with other hotel groups possibly willing to become involved in the project. But none was prepared to sign up because of the continuing legal uncertainty.
Treasury also hedged its bets by filing two separate commencement notices with Dublin Corporation, as required by the Building Regulations; one on December 9th for the proposed hotel scheme and the other on December 16th for the office development.
What will ultimately be built on the site depends almost entirely on whether or not Ms Justice McGuinness finds in favour of Lancefort in her reserved judgment on its legal action against the validity of An Bord Pleanala's planning permission for the Hilton scheme.
If she rejects the conservationists' case, it would then be open to Treasury Holdings to seek an alternative hotel partner while the demolition work goes on.
If not, it can probably proceed with some confidence to install 100,000 square feet of offices on this key city-centre site.
