{"id":205085,"date":"2025-12-22T12:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205085\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T12:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:36:10","slug":"donnybrook-circle-k-site-developer-wins-approval-for-143-bed-aparthotel-plan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205085\/","title":{"rendered":"Donnybrook Circle K site developer wins approval for 143-bed aparthotel plan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Property developer Keith Craddock has been granted permission to knock down the Circle K filling station opposite the Donnybrook Stadium and to replace it with a seven-storey aparthotel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A subsidiary of Red Rock Developments has been given permission to build a 143-bedroom aparthotel over a ground floor restaurant and caf\u00e9, in the latest plan to redevelop the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The site, located at the junction of Donnybrook Road and Brookvale Road, previously saw An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la refuse planning permission for a 10-storey 225-bedspace student accommodation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An assessment carried out by planning consultants, John Spain Associates, on behalf of the applicants noted the site is \u201ccurrently underutilised\u201d and that the addition of an aparthotel would create a \u201csignificant opportunity to provide much-needed tourist accommodation\u201d in the area. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The planners noted the location was close to \u201cmajor sports venues\u201d including the RDS and Aviva Stadium, as well as on the public transport corridor into Dublin city centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It noted a \u201ccritical undersupply\u201d of tourist accommodation in the Donnybrook area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Spain said the proposed aparthotel has been \u201cpreleased\u201d to Finland-based hospitality provider Bob W, which operates across Europe and was founded by Niko Karstikko and Sebastian Emberger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Donnybrook site will be the tech-powered hospitality brand\u2019s first location in Ireland, adding to sites in cities including Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, London and others across Nordic and Baltic countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Local voices had raised concerns over density on the previously denied student housing build, with Donnybrook Lawn Tennis Club claiming it would \u201cexceed the densities of Manhattan by some way\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Locals had also submitted observations to the council in relation to the aparthotel plans. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Two residents, who lived some distance from the proposed development, claimed the development was a \u201cTrojan Horse to allow for cheap, non-compliant bedsits\u201d. They said the aparthotel would \u201cbring chaos to Donnybrook\u201d and would not be in keeping with the character of the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Representatives of the Anglesea Road, Ailesbury Drive and Ailesbury Grove residents association called for the development to be cut back to six storeys to be \u201cmuch more congruent\u201d with the surrounding area. The site of the proposed development is just metres away from the Eglington Place residential development which is 12 storeys high. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They suggested the site would be more suitable for student accommodation given its proximity to UCD<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Kevin and John O\u2019Sullivan, directors of the neighbouring United Tyre Company, wrote to the council noting the nature of the development &#8211; with windows facing onto their property &#8211; would constrain their site from future development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They said regulations requiring separation between residential property developments with opposing windows \u201ceffectively sterilises our lands\u201d:<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cBy embedding sensitive hotel bedrooms onto our boundary, the applicant blocks adjoining regeneration potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The development proposal was amended by Red Rock in response to a request for further information by the council to address \u201cconcerns\u201d in relation the layout of the ground floor, the lack of street frontage, and overlooking issues on upper storeys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A redesign of 12 of the planned rooms set to overlook onto the conjoining property has been requested prior to the commencement of construction, to a maximum of 143 rooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As part of the approval, the developers will be required to make a development contribution of \u20ac625,872.20 to the council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Property developer Keith Craddock has been granted permission to knock down the Circle K filling station opposite the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,8786,13288,61,60,8787],"class_list":{"0":"post-205085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donnybrook","10":"tag-dublin-city-council","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-keith-craddock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}