Developer Tetrarch Residential has submitted plans for a 108-unit build-to-rent senior living apartment scheme on lands overlooking Blackrock College rugby club in south Dublin.
The €50 million proposed scheme would, according to planning documents, “provide a real alternative for older people who wish to move into accommodation suitable for their needs as they grow older”.
The proposed scheme by Tetrarch — part of the group that owns the Citywest Hotel — is the latest move by developers to target the projected need for rental accommodation for older people in south Dublin. Two other applications have been lodged recently for senior living schemes in Killiney and Blackrock.
Those schemes — both substantially smaller, at 29 and 39 units respectively — are facing opposition from local residents.
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The Tetrarch “integrated retirement community” application is the largest yet of its type and was made possible by Tetrarch last year purchasing a site of about one acre from Blackrock College RFC at its grounds on Stradbrook Road.
The deal was done to address the rugby club’s then debt of €1.2 million and the agreement is understood to have included an initial payment of €700,000.
The two-block scheme on a site that currently accommodates Stradbrook House, a vacant two-storey office building which is to be demolished, rises from three to seven storeys.
In the strategic housing development application lodged directly with An Bord Pleanála a planning report by Tom Phillips & Associates says the senior living “support model makes it possible to defer or eliminate the need for a nursing home and to avoid much of the cost associated with such care”.
The indoor amenities in the proposal include a multipurpose social space, a games room, breakout spaces and a TV/cinema room.
“The permitted development will provide much-needed residential development at these zoned lands,” said Stephen Barrett, a director at Tom Phillips & Associates.
An economic assessment by estate agents Savills said the scheme would create 45 jobs on site and off site when operational, along with significant healthcare savings.
A decision is due in November.
