Madam, - I note that AIB is the first of the wealthy Ballsbridge landlords to push ahead with the development of another high-rise office block at its headquarters, just a month after the controversial local area plan was scrapped.
The bank, which is in the final stages of completing a 56,834-square-metre, eight-storey office complex, has now applied to build another 18,600-square-metre building of similar height on the remainder of the site. The proposed block would bring the total office space at the Ballsbridge Bankcentre to 88,500 square metres, accommodating between 4,500 and 5,000 staff, in the heart of a residential area.
The proposed new office complex is on a site that could have been re-zoned under the local plan that Dublin City Council rejected following pressure from 14 local resident groups.
AIB is of course one of the major beneficiaries of the rezoning of lands in Ballsbridge. The bank has already made a €230 million profit from its Bankcentre site, which it sold and has leased back for its own use.
Sean Dunne, who purchased the front four blocks and adjoining land, will no doubt be right behind AIB with his own application for a high-density complex on the same site to recoup the €55 million an acre he paid AIB. He will be followed by Bernard McNamara, Ray Grehan et al.
Local residents may have won the first skirmish, but the battle for Ballsbridge is just beginning. - Yours, etc, .
ANN RICE, Ballsbridge Court, Serpentine Avenue, Dublin 4.