Dublin Corporation is to grant planning permission for a £126 million development of mainly offices, apartments, retail and cultural facilities on the west side of Smithfield with a 23-storey residential tower as the centrepiece. It will be the tallest building in the city centre.
The 633,000 sq ft complex will occupy two adjoining sites used for many years by Duffy's scrapyard and the Linders car showrooms. The developers, Fusano Properties Ltd, bought the 2.5 acre site two years ago for £8 million. An adjoining one-acre site owned by a Galway-based consortium, Kulling Properties Ltd, is to be developed separately.
Fusano is controlled by Linders and property developers, Paddy Kelly and John and Elaine Flynn. The corporation's decision to approve of the scheme, particularly the high rise tower, without imposing any restrictive conditions will come as a relief to the promoters.
The planning application was first lodged over a year ago but, according to Jerry Ryan, partner in Horan Keogan Ryan, they had a series of consultations with the corporation for almost 12 months before that.
One of the conditions of the planning permission is that the apartment tower should be floodlit. It will have one flat per floor, each with 1,400 sq ft of space and 360-degree panoramic views over the city.
The development will be located opposite the apartments and hotel developed on the former Jameson distillery site. The new apartment tower - described by the architect as a modern interpretation of the campanile so characteristic of Italian urban squares - will be significantly higher than the old Jameson chimney which has been fitted with an observation tower.
Fusano plans to provide a new curved street, linking Smithfield with Queen Street, which will serve as a boundary between their scheme and the Kulling site. Both sites have considerable frontage on to the civic space which has been upgraded at very considerable public expense by the corporation.
One of the most interesting elements of the scheme will be a children's museum with 45,000 sq ft allocated for it. It will also include a flexible theatre space.
Altogether there will be almost 400 apartments, mostly in six and seven-storey buildings on the street frontages. Apart from those in the tower block, all of them will be accessed via first floor courtyards. Roof gardens are also planned.
In order to encourage families to move into the area, the planners have stipulated that units over 750 sq ft should have either two or three-bedrooms.
The corporation has ruled that 17 apartments should be built as "non-profit housing". It also endorsed the plan to provide 39 bedrooms for retired members of the defence forces. This is designed to compensate for the proposed demolition of Bru na bhFiann, on Queen Street, which was built about 10 years ago as a soldiers' home.
The scheme will have over 95,000 sq ft of offices, almost 40,000 sq ft of retail space and 14,500 sq ft of cafes, bars and restaurants.
A three-level basement carpark, with almost 800 spaces, also forms part of the scheme. Some of these spaces will be available for short-term public use.
Even without the 23-storey tower block, the Fusano scheme will be significantly higher than the Heritage Properties development on the Jameson site. Its central spine will be up to nine storeys high, plus a double penthouse set back from the front facade.
The development will complement the Heritage scheme and mark another important stage in rejuvenating what was once one of the most rundown parts of the city. Smithfield has always been seen as the central element of the HARP integrated area rejuvenation plan.
