Cairn Homes is to lodge plans in the coming days for a scaled back 510-unit apartment scheme for its Montrose site beside RTÉ’s campus.
The planning application by Cairn Homes Montrose Ltd reduces by 98 the number of apartments from the permitted 608-unit scheme that secured the green light in July 2023 from An Bord Pleanála.
The new scheme, to be lodged with Dublin City Council, is made up of 326 two-bedroom apartments, 125 one-bedroom unitss, 51 three-bed apartments and eight studios.
They would be built across eight apartment blocks. Three of the blocks would rise to 10 storeys in height.
RM Block
The 10-year planning permission granted by An Bord Pleanála in July 2023 gave the go-ahead for 608 apartments in nine blocks ranging in height from two to 10 storeys and comprising 272 build-to-sell units and 336 build-to-rent.
[ Cairn Homes to begin construction of apartments on former RTÉ lands in DonnybrookOpens in new window ]
In the split decision, the appeals board refused permission for a 16-storey tower in the scheme, which would have included a 192-bedroom hotel and 80 apartments.
In the revised application, Cairn Montrose has given notice that it is to seek the omission of two planning conditions relating to the build-to-rent covenants from all units.
One condition attached by ABP, which Cairn is seeking to have deleted, ordered that a legal agreement be put in place by Cairn confirming that the build-to-rent units should remain owned and operated by an institutional entity for a period of not less than 15 years. And that no individual build-to-rent residential units should be sold separately for that period.
In January, Cairn commenced works on the first phase of its permitted scheme, some eight years after Cairn agreed a €107.5 million deal with RTÉ to purchase just under nine acres of land at its Donnybrook headquarters.
Cairn’s plans for the former RTÉ site have met with strong local opposition. Cairn Homes Montrose told An Bord Pleanála last year “there is a high risk of litigation against a future grant of permission, having regard to the history of litigation against a previous permission”.
