The developer who bought Chesterfield, the former Blackrock home of the late Tom Roche who co-founded Roadstone, has come back with another proposal to build a residential development in its grounds.
Myles Crofton's Avenue Homes which paid €47 million for the nine acre propety has applied for planning permission to build 204 apartments in four blocks at the Cross Avenue home.
The apartment blocks range from four to seven storeys with 370 car-parking spaces, mostly at basement level. The developer is also looking to refurbish Chesterfield, which is a protected structure, and change its use to a headquarters office building with a one-bedroom caretaker's apartment. He is also proposing to demolish the non-original extensions to Chesterfield House and some outhouses, and landscaping the gardens, and creating walkways.
Last year Crofton was turned down by An Bord Pleanala for 76 houses and 45 apartments on the site.
The sale of the Roche family home in 2004 sparked a bitter legal row between brother and sister, Eleanor and Tom Roche, whose father, also Tom, founded the National Toll Roads company. Eleanor Roche felt she had a claim against the people who had bought the multi-million nine-acre property and the subsequent High Court proceedings delayed the completion of the sale.
Chesterfield was home to the Roche family for over 40 years and was previously owned by another Dublin business family, the Bradburys.
It has considerable frontage onto Cross Avenue and also adjoins several other housing developments, including Booterstown Park and Cherbury Gardens on one side, and Glenvar Park and South Wood Park on the opposite side.
Myles Crofton is currently developing the Ashbourne Town Centre in Co Meath.
