Sean Dunne, famous for his purchase of the Jury’s Hotel and Berkley Court Hotel sites on Pembroke Road in Ballsbridge now proposes in the form of ‘Mountbrook Merrion Road Development Ltd’ to redevelop the AIB bank headquarters on Merrion Road and Serpentine Avenue.

According to the planning application, he wants to demolish 15700 square metres of existing buildings and put up a rack of six new towers where heights will be from seven to nine storeys over basement and lower ground floor levels with the new development consisting of 52000 square metres of mostly office space with a small amount of retail and residential space thrown in. The proposal plans an audacious redevelopment of the 10 acre site with the glazed stone and steel towers dominating the skyline for miles around.

The proposal came before the meeting of Pembroke/Rathmines and South East Inner City Council members at their monthly meeting in City Hall in mid October. It was unanimously rejected but approval remains the preserve of the City’s planners. Councillor Mary Freehill (LAB) pointed out that it would increase the density of the site three and a half times and said she found the proposal monotonous in terms of architecture, pointing out that the gable end which would face on to Serpentine Avenue was like a featureless high wall.

Eoghan Murphy (FG) said there was no merit in the planning application and questioned the fact that part of the land in the application is not owned by the developer. Edie Wynne (FG) said it dwarfs the RDS across the road and Jim O’ Callaghan (FF) said it was far too high for a residential area. Councillor Mannix Flynn (IND) described what was on offer as “architorture” while Councillor Oisin Quinn (LAB) and Chair of the Committee said it was hard to take the application seriously and questioned was the developer just trying to bolster the value of his site by looking for permission for land that he had incomplete ownership of.

Arguments and questions about the proposal raised at the Area Committee meeting are passed on to the relevant planners who have to take note of what the representatives think. We shall have to wait and see how the planners view this.