Massive offices scheme given go-ahead

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has granted planning permission for a huge motorway office park on the edge of the M50 at Leopardstown Road, Sandyford, Co Dublin. The development will have 1.6 million square feet of offices, virtually the same volume of space for which Dublin Corporation recently granted planning permission alongside the proposed National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock in the docklands.

The Leopardstown scheme, which will include a 160-bedroom hotel, will be on a 20-acre site at Leopardstown Road sold last year for more than £25 million by a religious order, the Legionaires of Christ.

The decision to grant permission for what will be known as Central Park comes at a time when office rents for new space have virtually doubled in the past year because of the scarcity which has seen the overall vacancy rate drop to its lowest ever level of 1.2 per cent.

The planners have stipulated that 50 per cent of the Leopardstown office scheme cannot be occupied until the Luas is operating and the South Eastern Motorway extension to the M50 is completed in 2003. However, with more than 700,000 square feet of office space and a hotel to complete over the next three years, the promoters are reported to be "extremely satisfied" with the planning decision.

Central Park will take about five years to complete and will have a value of about £500 million. The scheme will be carried out by a consortium of Castlemarket Holdings Ltd and a businessman, Mr David Arnold. Castlemarket is a joint venture company of Jermyn Investment Property and Treasury Holdings.

Joint agents Finnegan Menton and Lisney are understood to be negotiating with several international companies looking for substantial amounts of space. The agents expect most of the 8,000 jobs to be created in the park to be in the information technology, computer and telemarketing industries.

The Dun Laoghaire planners ruled that one office block of 40,000 square feet should be omitted from the scheme, leaving 12 others to be built along with a 110,000 square foot hotel which will have conference and leisure facilities. There will be neighbourhood shops, a fitness centre and creche on the site.

The planners have introduced a lower level of parking on the site to comply with the strategy of the Dublin Transportation Office and to avoid traffic congestion. Parking for tenants on the site has been reduced from 4,300 cars to about 3,000, and 800 further spaces are to be set aside as a park-and-ride facility for the public.

Under a Mobility Management Plan laid down by the planners, the promoters are to provide a free shuttle bus service from Central Park to link with public transport services. The developers are also being forced to introduce a mechanism for sharing on a daily basis for on-site parking by employees.

The promoters will have to contribute £7 million towards infrastructural facilities and fund the upgrading of a section of the Leopardstown Road when it becomes a dual carriageway.