Johnny Ronan venture to seek planning permission for 20-storey tower on Irish Glass Bottle site

Gordon Deegan

A Johnny Ronan joint venture firm is to lodge plans in the coming days for a 20-storey 'landmark' tower to house a 228-bedroom hotel
for the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin’s docklands area.

In a statutory planning notice published, it states that Pembroke Beach DAC is to seek planning permission from Dublin City Council for the hotel scheme on the 15 hectare Irish Glass Bottle site, Poolbeg West, Dublin 4.

The notice states that the scheme will comprise a 20-storey ‘landmark' tower with a setback storey at the 16th floor level over two levels of basement to provide the hotel which will also include a licensed bar, restaurant and ancillary spaces.

Pembroke Beach DAC is a joint venture made up of Mr Ronan’s Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE), Oaktree Capital and home builder, Lioncor.

Currently, the consortium is progressing with Phase one of the redevelopment of the Irish Glass Bottle site with 894 units now under construction.

There are plans for more than 3,500 housing units in total across the scheme and last July, Pembroke Beach DAC secured the green light to construct 502 apartments across five separate apartment blocks ranging in height from six to seven storeys.

As part of the ambitious plans for the site in November, Dublin City Council granted planning permission to Pembroke Beach DAC for a six-storey commercial block compromising 135,260 sq ft of gross floor area to accommodate a multi-functional technology hub and community space.

The new planning application follows a double boost enjoyed by Mr Ronan’s RGRE in recent days.

Last week, Dublin City Council granted planning permission to an RGRE subsidiary to construct a 25-storey residential docklands scheme which allows the construction of 550 high-spec homes.

The 25-storey block is to form the centrepiece of the mixed-use development and is to sit alongside the new nine-storey European headquarters offices that RGRE is building for global banking giant Citi at North Wall Quay.

In the second boost, Ronan Group Real Estate confirmed last Thursday that it has purchased four of its former assets out of receivership and brought them back under the control of the business.

The Group confirmed that it has taken back what it calls ‘the jewels in the crown’ – 70 Grafton Street, home to PTSB and City Break Apartments, and 78-79 Grafton Street, the location of Bewley’s Café, in Dublin 2 – and has bought back its stake in Percy Exchange on Percy Place in Dublin 4 and St James House on Adelaide Road in Dublin 2.