The Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) firm Waterside Block 9 Developments Ltd has previously secured planning permission for an office block on the site.
Instead of proceeding with the office block, the firm is seeking to secure planning permission for the aparthotel at the same site at Waterfront South Central, City Block No 9, North Wall Quay and Mayor Street Upper, Dublin 1.
The site is located between the National Convention Centre and the 3Arena, and a submission lodged with the planning documentation confirms that the proposal is designed for operation by Staycity as part of its Wilde brand.
The submission says Staycity is an Irish-owned international aparthotel operator and is Europe’s fastest growing aparthotel provider, operating more than 8,000 rooms in 21 cities, with 45 current contracted properties. It says “this extensive experience has informed the design evolution of the proposal”.
A planning report drawn up by Tom Phillips + Associates says the aparthotel scheme will operate in a controlled and managed manner and will not give rise to unacceptable impacts on neighbouring amenity.
A separate visitor accommodation audit found there is no existing over-concentration of aparthotel visitor accommodation use in the site’s vicinity, nor will the proposal give rise to such an over-concentration, “with just nine existing hotels and one aparthotel within 1km of the subject site”.
The planning report says the proposal represents a reduction in overall massing and basement intensity relative to the previously permitted office scheme for the site.
Separately, An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) has refused planning permission for a new luxury seven-storey guest house planned for Lower Baggot Street, in Dublin.
The refusal by ACP upholds a refusal issued by Dublin City Council in July 2024 to the Corcoran family’s The Kilcolman Partnership for a 30-bedroom up-market guesthouse for 73 Lower Baggot Street that would include the change of use of existing offices to hotel and the addition of a seven-storey block.
The family operates the four-star Perryville House, in Kinsale, a member of Ireland’s Bluebook.
A lodged planning report said members of the second generation of the Corcoran family have moved to Dublin and have identified the Lower Baggot Street property in which to establish a sister business to Perryville House.
However, ACP has concluded that the construction of a five to seven-storey hotel within the curtilage of a protected structure would be overly dominant and overbearing in views to and from the protected structure, and would detract from the prevailing height, scale and appearance of the surrounding streetscape.
Six parties lodged observations with ACP opposing the scheme and they included the Irish Georgian Society, Karyn and Mark Harty SC and the South Georgian Core Residents Association.
source