More than 560 cost-rental apartments are to be built by the Land Development Agency (LDA) on the site of the former Ballymun shopping centre in north Dublin.
The apartments will be built in three blocks from six to 12 storeys, which would be the tallest apartment scheme built in the north Dublin suburb since the old 15-storey Ballymun towers were demolished more than a decade ago.
Half of the 564 apartments will have two bedrooms, just over a third will be one-bedroom apartments, with the remainder studios. All of the apartments will be available to tenants eligible for the State’s cost-rental scheme, with no affordable purchase or social housing planned.
Cost-rental housing is aimed at workers who earn too much to qualify for social housing but cannot afford private market rents. The terms of the State-subsidised scheme require rents to be at least 25 per below market values for the area. Eligible applicants must have a net household income under €66,000 in Dublin.
RM Block
The regeneration of Ballymun began in the 1990s and over the following two decades 36 blocks containing 2,820 flats built in the 1960s, including seven 15-storey towers, were demolished.
Almost 2,000 replacement social homes, as well as 1,350 private homes, mostly apartments serving the rental market, were built.
The new homes were mostly completed before the final tower block was demolished in 2015, but it was another five years before demolition of the 50-year-old shopping centre began.
The eight-acre shopping centre site was once designated for a vast Dundrum-style shopping complex, but has remained vacant since its demolition was completed in 2021.
Dublin City Council in February 2023 sought expressions of interest to develop housing at the western half of the site, with the east section, facing on to Ballymun Road, to be retained for later commercial and retail development in tandem with the construction of the MetroLink rail line.
[ Affordable housing proposed for vacant Ballymun shopping centre siteOpens in new window ]
However, despite twice seeking bids for the western lands, the council was unable to secure a private developer, and instead entered into talks with the LDA.
The redevelopment of the old shopping centre, known as the Town Centre, was central to the 1997 Ballymun regeneration plan. In 2000, Treasury Holdings paid more than £6 million (€7.6 million) for a 53 per cent stake in the site, with the council retaining the remainder. The new complex, which was to be the main shopping facility for the suburb’s 18,000 residents, was due to be built in 2005.
However, it was not until 2009 that Treasury secured planning permission for Spring Cross, a vast €800 million development, which was to include an 11-screen cinema, bowling alley, public library, creche and restaurants, as well as more than 60,000sq m of retail space.
It was intended it would begin construction the following year, but the economic crash began and the town centre lands became part of the National Asset Management Agency’s (Nama) portfolio of loans before any development began. Most retailers in the centre subsequently shut and, in early 2014, it lost the Tesco supermarket, its anchor tenant.
In May 2014 the council reached agreement with Nama and its receivers to acquire the Treasury stake. Two years later, the council sought compulsory purchase orders to gain clear possession of the site.
The final tenants left the shopping centre in summer 2018.
The LDA expects to lodge a planning application for the new apartments by the end of this year.
