Hotel firm launches new airport bid after plan blocked
FRESH plans for a new 10-storey, 421-bedroom hotel that will cost tens of millions of euro to develop have been submitted for a site near Dublin Airport.
It’s the second time the company that owns the site at Clonshaugh has tried to secure permission for the huge hotel project.
The company that made the planning application, Carra Shore (Dublin), secured planning permission from Fingal County Council for a 427-bedroom hotel on the site last April. It would have been one of the largest hotels in the country.
But in October, An Bord Pleanála blocked the development.
It upheld the appeals of several local residents, who had claimed that the proposal would have a negative impact on existing residential amenities in the area and would result in a loss of privacy.
The planned 10-storey building consisted of 317 bedrooms and 110 suites and included leisure facilities, meeting and conference rooms.
The company behind the efforts to build the hotel is owned by Jalaluddin Kajani and other family members. They also own upmarket boutique hotels in London and a hotel in Ireland. Mr Kajani moved to Ireland from Pakistan in 1980.
The site is located close to the junction of the M50 and the M1 motorway. Carra Shore told the planning watchdog this year that “there is a shortage of hotel rooms in Dublin and the proposed co-located hotel rooms would add a significant quantum (of rooms)”.
But An Bord Pleanála said that the site is in a high technology zone, where hotels are not permitted. The board also said the hotel would be located in an isolated area that does not benefit from high capacity public transport links.
Undeterred, Carra Shore is now seeking revisions to an existing planning permission, first obtained in 2008, for a 325-bedroom hotel on the site. It wants to increase the number of bedrooms allowed under that permission to 421.
The original planning permission for the 325-bedroom hotel was obtained by a company called Eastground Investments, which is now in receivership. It was controlled by former Green Property executive Simon Murray.
Ireland’s largest hotel group, Dalata, is currently extending its Dublin Airport Clayton hotel, close to the planned Clonshaugh hotel. The Dalata property already has 467 bedrooms and is adding 140 more.
Residents claimed the hotel would have a negative impact on the area