Dublin City Council has given hospitality firm The Raglan Townhouse Hotel Ltd the green light for a hotel on Baggot Street Upper in Dublin 4, despite objections.
The council has granted planning permission for a 78-bedroom hotel at 46, 48 and 52-54 Baggot Street Upper (the latter property formerly an AIB branch), and 46, 48, 50 and 52-54 Eastmoreland Lane, and fronting on to Eastmoreland Place.
The hotel firm, when lodging the plans in January, had sought planning permission for an 87-bedroom hotel.
However, Raglan Townhouse scaled back the scheme in response to council concerns.
RM Block
The permission reverses a Dublin City Council refusal in June 2024 when the council turned down plans for a 100-bedroom hotel at the same site.
The council’s planner’s report recommended that planning permission be granted to the new scheme after concluding that the proposed development would “result in refurbishment and reuse of currently vacant structures”.
As part of the revised scheme, the applicants have removed three stand-alone hotel rooms from the upper levels of No 48 Baggot Street Upper and in their place proposed a two-bed family home.
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The council said use as a hotel “will provide activity and vibrancy to a long vacant corner site which is to be welcomed”.
The council granted planning permission despite a number of objections.
In one, William Doran of St Mary’s Road, Ballsbridge, told the council that the scheme “would devalue property in the area and will impact on the residential amenity of this architectural conservation area”.
In a joint objection, Pembroke Lane residents Dorinda Kavanagh, Esther Murnane and Dr Pat Wallace told the council they were objecting on the grounds that it does not have facilities for parking.
Seán McConnon of Pembroke Road told the council the scheme would materially injure the setting, legibility and special architectural character of protected structures, would fail to preserve or enhance the character of the conservation area, and would result in unacceptable cumulative operational, servicing and residential amenity impacts within a confined and sensitive urban block.
In a planning statement for the applicants, DK Planning & Architecture said that the proposed development “represents a sustainable and appropriate form of urban regeneration, centred on the reuse and enhancement of protected structures and the sensitive integration of new development to the rear”.
