14-storey apartments get go-ahead in south Dublin
AN Bord Pleanála has given the green light for the construction of 460 apartments across five blocks ranging in height from six to 14 storeys in south Dublin.
The board granted permission for the scheme at the Sandyford Business District (SBD) under the terms of the Government’s fast-track planning application system.
With demand for housing in the capital particularly acute, property industry sources anticipate that Pearse Farrell, of receivers Duff & Phelps will offer the site to the market shortly. Efforts to contact Mr Farrell for comment on the matter were unsuccessful.
Located on the Carmanhall Road and almost directly opposite the Stillorgan stop of the Luas Green line, the plot known as the ‘former Aldi site’ would be attractive to a range of developers and investors involved in Ireland’s burgeoning build-to-rent (BTR) sector.
Ireland’s biggest private landlord, Ires Reit, is one obvious potential purchaser.
Ires is awaiting a decision from An Bord Pleanála on its own fast-track application for the construction of more than 400 apartments at the adjacent Rockbrook scheme.
The application represents the company’s latest attempt to secure planning permission for the site, which prior to the crash had formed part of the Cork developer John Fleming’s property empire.
In April 2017, An Bord Pleanála upheld Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s refusal of Ires Reit’s application for three 14-storey apartment blocks at the Rockbrook scheme.
Council planners said its height would detract from the visual dominance of the unfinished 14-storey Sentinel Building on an adjacent site.
The Sentinel meanwhile remains the subject of a planning application by its new owners, the Comer brothers, for the development of 294 ‘live-work’ office units and retail space.
As the Irish Independent reported previously, the plan by the Galway-born developers to complete the development and an adjoining apartment block was met with an objection from Transport Minister Shane Ross.
While welcoming a proposal for the completion of the 14-storey Sentinel – which he said “has been a visible scar on the Sandyford skyline for so long” – Mr Ross told council planners that the addition of two floors to the six-storey building beside it would “be totally out of sync with the local area”.