Dublin City Council is demanding that the owners of the CHQ building in Dublin’s Docklands scale back their expansion plans.
Custom House Quarter Ltd lodged plans earlier this year to turn the ground floor of the listed 19th-century building into a multi-stall food market, with an event space on a mezzanine level.
The scheme also involves the construction of a five storey services building and office space for the 75 to 100 employees supporting the various businesses at the location in the future.
Now, in response to the plans the city council has asked the firm to lodge revised plans.
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The Council said the CHQ Building “is a protected structure of national importance and a significant historic landmark in the revitalised Docklands area of Dublin city”.
It “has concerns in relation to the proposal in its current form and its impact on the integrity of this significant protected structure and its setting”.
As a result, the council wants the applicant to omit two floors from the proposed extended service building and to omit the southern bridge linking the mezzanine floors.
The Council has also asked the applicant to address third party concerns around the potential impact of the proposed construction on existing units.
One of those to make a submission is Mitchell & Son Ltd which operates out of Unit 4.
On behalf of Mitchell & Son Ltd, Dixon McGaver Nolan Architects state that the retailer would suffer from “the general diminution in the quality of the trading environment” arising from the planning application.
The submission states that the proposal “is in need of substantial revisions”.
However, Fáilte Ireland state that the planned food market “will contribute to the development of the Docklands food narrative, while expanding to address the challenge of the night-time and weekend economy”.
Manager of environment and planning at Fáilte Ireland, Shane Dineen, also said the lack of unique gala dinner venues of scale has long been an impediment to the growth of the international business events market to Ireland.
In a submission, Mr Dineen said: “Addressing this identified gap in this business events segment will ensure recovery and growth of revenue which is central to Fáilte Ireland’s sustainable growth agenda.”
As part of the application, director at Custom House Quarter, Mervyn Greene has stated that new plans will make the CHQ building and Dublin’s docklands destinations worth visiting for domestic visitors and tourists alike.
In a letter accompanying a planning application, Mr Greene has stated that the intention is to make the CHQ building a public recreation centre and a destination to attract tourists.
