The operator of the five-star Conrad Hotel near St Stephen’s Green in Dublin has secured the green light for a large expansion of the hotel.
Dublin City Council granted planning permission to Earlsfort Centre Hotel Proprietors Ltd to increase the number of hotel rooms by 192 to 308 as part of a “significant investment” in the hotel.
The plans include a new eight storey extension over existing event space, resulting in a 10 storey building.
The plan also includes a 7th floor extension to Earlsfort Terrace and an additional floor to the existing hotel resulting in a nine storey building with a set back to Earlsfort Terrace.
RM Block
The council gave permission after concluding the proposal “would improve the overall function of the existing hotel”.
The council also concluded that the visual impact of the proposed extension will not have a negative impact “and the extension has been designed in a manner where it will integrate into the urban built fabric of the site and surrounding context”.
As part of 17 conditions attached to the permission, the Conrad hotel firm is to make a €755,058 development contribution to the council towards public infrastructure.
The permission comes almost four years after the owners of the Conrad, Archer Capital – which also owns the Shelbourne Hotel – secured permission for a new seven storey wing at the Conrad that would have increased the number of hotel rooms from 192 to 280.
However, a planning report lodged with the current application by planning consultants, John Spain Associates stated that “due to the cost of construction and viability concerns, this scheme could not progress to construction”.
Only one objection was lodged against the current scheme by the owner, Cedrela Ltd of the nearby Dolmen House and St Stephen’s Green House at Earlsfort Terrace.
In a submission on behalf of Cedrela, planning consultants, Brock McClure said the proposal “significantly impacts the potential for the future redevelopment of Dolmen House and St Stephen’s Green House”.
The Brock McClure submission noted that both Dolmen House and St Stephen’s Green House “are high profile, ageing commercial developments which will require either a redevelopment of the entire site or an upgrading of the existing building stock”.
The most recent accounts for Cedrela state that the company is controlled by the co-owners in The Osborne House Co-Ownership and it lists former Davy deputy chairman and former Ryanair non-executive director, Kyran McLaughlin as a 25 per cent shareholder.
