{"id":8214,"date":"2025-09-08T18:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/8214\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T18:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:51:07","slug":"aparthotel-pitched-for-donnybrook-site-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/8214\/","title":{"rendered":"Aparthotel pitched for Donnybrook site \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">European-wide tech-powered hospitality provider Bob W is set to make its first foray into the Irish market where it is planning to operate a 143-bedroom aparthotel in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donnybrook\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donnybrook\">Donnybrook <\/a>in south Dublin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Planning documents lodged by developer Keith Craddock\u2019s Red Rock Donnybrook Ltd with Dublin City Council show the firm is seeking to construct a seven-storey aparthotel at the Circle K petrol station at the junction of Donnybrook Road and Brookvale Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The move comes almost one year since the then An Bord Plean\u00e1la refused planning permission to Red Rock Donnybrook for a 10-storey 225-bedspace student accommodation on the same site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a planning report lodged with the new application, planning consultant, John Spain reveals that the proposed development will be operated by Bob W which, he said, is recognised \u201cas a market leading operator of exceptional, contemporary, short-stay aparthotels throughout Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2024\/10\/04\/permission-for-donnybrook-student-housing-overturned\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Permission for Donnybrook student housing overturnedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The proposed aparthotel \u201chas been pre-leased to Bob W. by the developer and is therefore not considered to be a speculative development\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a letter of support lodged with the application, chief development officer at Bob W, Philip Grace, requests the city council to grant planning permission, and confirmed that Bob W seeks to become the long-term operator of the proposed aparthotel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Helsinki headquartered Bob W already operates in 18 other European cities including London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In his report, Mr Spain states that the Donnybrook site is currently underutilised and the provision of a high-quality aparthotel development \u201ccreates a significant opportunity to provide much-needed tourist accommodation, promote urban consolidation in an appropriate location\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Spain stated that the scheme proposes \u201ca number of significant improvements\u201d from the previously proposed student accommodation scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">He pointed out that the scheme proposes a reduction in height from 10 storeys to seven storeys and is 8.7 metres lower in height than the student scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Mr Spain states that his consultancy has prepared a Tourist Accommodation Demand, Concentration and Justification Report which demonstrates that there  have been only two aparthotels at the outer extremities of the given 2km catchment area which provide only 93 aparthotel bedrooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said that there is \u201ca critical undersupply of tourist accommodation facilities in the context of the accessible, urban area of Donnybrook\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A decision is due on the application in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European-wide tech-powered hospitality provider Bob W is set to make its first foray into the Irish market where&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,8785,8786,61,60,8787],"class_list":{"0":"post-8214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-circle-k","10":"tag-donnybrook","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-keith-craddock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8214","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=8214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8214\/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=8214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}