Cairn Homes plans 621 apartments on €107.5m RTE site
By Gordon Deegan
Cairn Homes has lodged planning documentation with An Bord Pleanála signalling its intention to build 619 apartments and three townhouses on the site it purchased from RTE for €107.5m in 2017.
The number of units planned is 113 - or 22% - higher than the original 500 apartments and nine homes Cairn initially indicated it would construct on the 8.64 site at RTE's Donnybrook campus after its purchase in June 2017.
It is even higher than the 550-600 units that Cairn told investors last month it would build on the site which was sold at 43% above the guide price of €75m.
An Bord Pleanála is describing the Cairn plans as ‘614 no. apartments, three townhouses, two cafes, a childcare facility, the change of use of Mount Errol from commercial office use to private residents member's club and associated site works’.
Cairn Homs CEO, Michael Stanley has stated previously: “If an opportunity like the RTE site comes along, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire a site of that quality.”
The planning documentation lodged by the building firm starts a nine-week long pre-planning consultation with An Bord Pleanála.
The consultation will involve Dublin City Council planners and at the end of the consultation, An Bord Pleanála will provide an ‘opinion’ on the development.
It is then open to Cairn Homes to take into account the views expressed by An Bord Pleanála before lodging an application direct to An Bord Pleanála under recently introduced Government fast track planning rules.
The new Strategic Housing Development rules allow developers to by-pass local authorities and have their applications decided by the appeals board.
The new rules can save a year or more in the time required to have large scale planning applications decided by local authorities.
Cairn currently has 1,852 units under construction in the capital and has a further 1,800 units in pre-planning.
Third parties cannot make submissions on pre-planning consultations but when Cairn lodges its planning application in 2019, all documentation in relation to the pre-planning will be available to view and third parties will then be able to lodge submissions.
