'Knightsbridge' for Dublin 4?

One man who must hope more than most that the Lansdowne Road redevelopment is not scuppered by objections from local residents to its size is property developer Sean Dunne.
What he proposes for the nearby Jurys Hotel/Berkeley Court hotel site is mammoth by comparison to the proposed rebuilding of the sports ground and likely to attract an even bigger fight from locals, irrespective of the Lansdowne Road outcome.

But if the height of the Lansdowne Road stadium is reduced – as residents want – then Dunne's plans will be banjaxed.

Objections must be in by next Wednesday, 15 February and residents of Shelbourne Road, worried by likely damage to their property values, have constructed a clear argument. Although the ground has a proposed capacity of just 50,000, the Irish Rugby Football Union and Football Association of Ireland want it to tower to a height of 49 metres. That is far bigger than the Nou Camp in Barcelona (capacity 98,800), Croke Park at 35 metres (capacity 82,500) and the Cardiff city-centre Millennium Stadium at 33 metres (capacity 72,500).

Even stadia of similar height, such as Stade de France in Paris (at a height of 45 metres for a capacity of 80,000) and the new Wembley in London (at 52 metres for a capacity of 90,000) are not built in residential areas.

Put in a more understandable context, the height of the nine-acre building would be almost as high as the 17-storey Liberty Hall, a vast, irregular structure amid streets full of two-storey residences.

And that's what Sean Dunne must be worried about. He has yet to confirm his plans for the less than five acres at Jurys Hotel he spent €260 million on, or the separate site of less than two acres at the Berkeley Court on which he spent another €100 million. The suggestion was that he would build a series of luxury apartment blocks as high as 32 storeys, which would be a Trump Towers-style project for Dublin. The idea that the planners would allow this seems brave. There may also be a little matter of preservation orders over the trees that border the two hotels.

Now, however, Dunne wants to appear to do something else. Although the area is zoned only for residential, apparently he wants Dublin City Council to allow for the construction of a Knightsbridge for Dublin, a city within a city with restaurants, cafés, bars and a hotel as well as apartments.

To what height though? Was this what he planned originally and was the talk of apartments merely a bluff? Or has he something else again in mind if plans A and B get rejected for planning permission?

He may have to wait until he sees what happens to Lansdowne Road. But if there are delays in that project – which wouldn't be a disaster for the FAI and IRFU now that Croke Park is available for matches, Dunne's financing costs on his mega-gamble will increase. He will be left to hope that the property boom continues in the meantime if he wants to get his money back with a profit.