US fund seeking planning for 165-room aparthotel at former Zanzibar pub site
A NEW aparthotel planned for the site of Zanzibar and the Bondi Beach nightclub on Dublin’s Ormond Quay will have 165 rooms in a development that will reach up to seven storeys.
Targeted Investment Opportunities ICAV — a fund connected to US investment group Oaktree Capital Management — has applied for planning permission from Dublin City Council for the development.
The new development, which is set to be larger than what was previously expected for the site, is just one of a number of similar developments being planned for the city amid a shortage of hotel rooms.
It was previously reported that the US fund was planning to spend €45m on the aparthotel after it acquired Zanzibar, a popular boom-era nightspot, for more than €10m last December.
It was also reported earlier this month that another well-known Dublin watering hole, Scruffy Murphy’s, is to be demolished after plans were lodged for a five to six-storey aparthotel.
The building of the new aparthotel will require the demolition of a number of existing buildings on Great Strand Street to make way for extensions to the protected structures that make up the site on Ormond Quay.
Works to these protected structures will include internal upgrade works, removal of roller shutters and the reinstatement of shop fronts, as well as replacement windows with approved Victorian and Georgian window details.
The proposed aparthotel development would have an overall gross floor area of 8,565 square metres accommodating 165 bedrooms.
It would also include meeting rooms, a gym, a café, bar and restaurant area, as well as a coffee kiosk on Ormond Quay.