The Larry Goodman family-owned property arm Ternary is making a fresh bid to secure planning permission for a new office scheme on Dublin’s Nassau Street and Kildare Street.
A report, drawn up by Stephen Ward Town Planning & Development Consultants and lodged with the scheme states that the proposed development comprising the preservation of numbers 47 and 48 Kildare Street and demolition of number 1 Nassau Street “is first and foremost a conservation project”.
Replacing number 1 Nassau Street, Ternary is seeking to construct a new four-storey replacement building and change of use of all remaining floor space from hotel/public house/nightclub use to office use to provide for a new interlinked office building on the site.
The Biggest business stories of 2022 (Part 1)
The current site includes the Kildare Street Hotel incorporating the JP Mooney pub. The new scheme would have a cumulative gross floor area of 1,950sq m, of which 1,310sq m is accommodated within existing buildings, and 640sq m is new build predominantly at 1 Nassau Street and to the rear of numbers 7 and 48 Kildare Street.
The new application by Ternary Ltd follows Dublin City Council issuing a previous refusal for a mixed-use scheme on the same site in January 2020.
The 2019 application involved the demolition of numbers 47 and 48 Kildare Street along with No 1 Nassau Street. But the council ruled that the scheme would have an adverse impact on the historic streetscape of Nassau Street and Kildare Street and also constitute a visually obtrusive and insensitive form of development.
The refusal came after the Department of Heritage urged a rethink on the scheme and more than 35 others lodged submissions expressing strong concerns about the proposal.
The Ward planning report lodged with the new application states that the new scheme “consists of a radically different proposal in all respects and seeks to address all of the concerns and reasons for refusal in respect of the previous refusal”.
The planning report states that “collectively, the proposal will greatly ameliorate and enhance sections of historic streetscape along Kildare Street and Nassau Street which have been heavily compromised by restoring architectural and visual coherence”.
It also claims the scheme will generate vitality and increase levels of activity through a more efficient use of a brownfield site and buildings.
The report notes that in response to the previous reasons for refusal, Ternary appointed a design team comprising experienced built environment specialists in addition to renowned historic building contractors to work collaboratively on a new design approach in order to address all previous reasons for refusal and concerns of objectors.
