Hotel Sector: A large hotel - the centrepiece of a major city centre scheme - is to open in autumn 2006, writes Jack Fagan

A four or five-star Radisson hotel is to form the centrepiece of a mixed-use apartment and office scheme rapidly taking shape on a key site beside Dublin Castle and South Great George's Street in Dublin city centre.

The high quality development on Chancery Lane and Golden Lane is being carried out by Padraic Rhatigan of the construction company, JJ Rhatigan, which is now heavily involved in the property markets in both Dublin and Galway.

The firm is set to have a higher profile in Dublin over the coming years after buying a site of 8.2-acre opposite Heuston Station from the Office of Public Works and Eircom for €79 million. It has planning permission for a substantial office development, shops, a hotel, 281 apartmetns and a museum of modern art.

Before that huge project gets under way, Rhatigan's will be busy building out a site of over two acres which is exceptionally well located in one of the oldest parts of the city. It virtually adjoins the new Dunnes Stores head office which is nearing completing on South Great George's Street and along Ship Street.

That long overdue project will serve as an anchor for the redevelopment of an area which is gradually being transformed by several new apartment and office schemes. Directly opposite the Rhatigan development, another phase of the highly successful apartment scheme in the former Adelaide Hospital is being completed by builder Sean Kelly before being offered for sale early next year.

Radisson's decision to manage the new 160-bedroom hotel at Chancery Lane will be seen as a major coup by Mr Rhatigan who is also one of the owners of the Radisson Hotel in Sligo.

Radisson's first hotel in Dublin city centre - it also operates the five-star Radisson St Helen's in Booterstown just off the Stillorgan Road - will include several luxurious suites and will operate "to the highest international standards", according to the company.

The facilities will include a designated conference area, and spa and leisure centre. There will be 90 car-parking spaces at two underground levels. The hotel is expected to open for business next autumn.

It will be the seventh Radisson hotel in Ireland, following the success of its St Helens, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, Cork and Athlone hotels. Another Radisson hotel is due to be based on the Farmleigh estate near Cavan town.

The decision by Radisson to move into Chancery Lane is expected to prove a strong selling point when the adjoining 77 apartments in Castle Way go for sale off the plans next week. Most of them are likely to be ready for occupation by the end of the year.

The four to seven-storey apartment blocks will have retail units on the ground floor and an internal courtyard. There will also be car-parking at basement level.

Most of the Chancery Lane site was acquired from the former GE Capital Woodchester which retains an office block on the site and rents most of another 3,066sq m (33,000sq ft) block, Le Polle House, from the Rhatigan company. The developer now plans to build another 3,066sq m (30,000sq ft) office block alongside the hotel in the confident expectation that it will also be in immediate demand because of the convenient location. Across the street, the Irish Bankers Federation is preparing to fit-out its new headquarters. Chancery Lane has come of age after centuries in the doldrums.