Plan to regenerate St Teresa’s Gardens to go on public display

Plans for the regeneration of one of Dublin's largest and most dilapidated flats complexes, at a cost expected to be in the region of €15 million, have been published by Dublin City Council.

St Teresa's Gardens, next to the Coombe maternity hospital in the south inner city, was to have been demolished and rebuilt as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with Dublin City Council, but the regeneration plans were scrapped more than four years ago, following the collapse of the property market.

The council intends to go ahead with the redevelopment of the 1950s estate, which has become increasingly run down with persistent sewerage and damp problems that council engineers have been unable to resolve though maintenance measures.

Most of the 16 blocks of flats will be demolished, but two blocks, currently housing 60 flats, will be retained. These two buildings will be stripped internally and the flats reconfigured, with 11 flats amalgamated to provide eight larger units, resulting in 57 homes.

The council also plans to build 50 new homes on the 2.3 hectare site. Of these, 16 will be apartments ranging in height from three to five storeys and 34 will be terraced houses of two to three storeys in height.

Submissions in relation to the plans can be made to the council until March 7th. Following the approval of councillors, it is expected that demolition will get under way by the middle of this year with construction to start next year.

The council’s development will be considerably more modest than the planned PPP scheme. The complex was to have been demolished and replaced with 300 social and affordable units, 300 private apartments, retail and commercial units and community buildings.

At more than five hectares, the site is one of the largest in the area. As well as the hospital, it is bordered by two other large sites, the former Player Wills and Bailey Gibson sites.

The council’s new plans require less of the land than is currently occupied. It hopes the unused portion will attract private development when the property market recovers.

A regeneration board for the original development was set up in December 2005 and spent several years working on a master plan. By the end of the summer 2009, however, it had become clear the project as envisaged was not going to progress and the council announced that the PPP plans were to be abandoned.