TikTok plan to close cafe to public at Dublin office ‘undesirable’, says council

Dublin City Council has told TikTok that its plan to close off a planned cafe to the public at its Dublin HQ “is likely to create a precedent for similar type undesirable development”. TikTok Technology Ltd is seeking a change of use from the permitted cafe/restaurant to office floor space.

Documents associated with TikTok’s planning application also show that the council told the social media giant in a pre-planning meeting that its application to close off the cafe to the public at TikTok’s Tropical Fruit Warehouse (TFW) on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay due to security considerations “will not be encouraged”.

The council record of the pre-planning meeting noted that “the loss of a public accessible cafe/restaurant is regrettable and not considered a planning gain”. It added that “a key positive in the original proposal was the possibility the cafe/restaurant would have on the animation and vibrancy of this quayside space”.

The note added that “the closing off of this space is likely to create a precedent for similar type undesirable development and will not be encouraged”.

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The council acknowledged that TikTok mentioned allowing some events to take place at the location, but said this would be “occasional” and “would not sufficiently replace the vibrancy or amenity a working cafe would bring to this context”.

In a letter to Dublin City Council as part of the application, the billionaire co-founder of social media giant ByteDance, which owns TikTok, Rubo Liang said TikTok was not in a position to facilitate open public access to the planned ground floor cafe and requested planning permission to allow the use of the cafe “for employees and designated visitors to our building only”.

In his letter, Mr Liang cited security considerations due to the sensitive nature of some of the work that would take place within the TFW building, coupled with the desire to provide openness and interaction.

Director at planning consultants Tom Phillips + Associates John Gannon told the council that “security and data protection are of utmost importance to the company and with this in mind, TikTok is not in a position to facilitate open public access to the planned ground floor cafe/restaurant”.

No objections have been lodged against the proposal and the council is due to make a decision on the application next week.