A plan to expand one of the McGettigan group's Dublin hotels has been knocked back
The council has blocked a proposal to add two new storeys to the North Star Hotel.
THE MCGETTIGAN HOTEL Group’s plans to expand and refurbish one of its Dublin locations as part of its multimillion-euro portfolio revamp have been knocked back by the local council.
The McGettigan group manages a portfolio of nine family-owned hotels, all of which are in Ireland with the exception of one property in Dubai.
The empire was built up by Jim McGettigan, a renowned figure in the Irish hotel trade, who owns the Bonnington hotel in Dublin, formerly called The Regency, and the Ambassador in Cork.
Earlier this year, a company connected to the McGettigan clan applied for planning permission to revamp one of its locations in Dublin, the North Star Hotel, on Amiens Street.
The plans included the redevelopment of part of the existing hotel and the addition of two more floors to the existing seven-storey building. The company stated this would provide the hotel with 36 new bedrooms.
The application has been rejected by Dublin City Council due to the effect the height and scale of the building would have on the area.
The local authority said the development would cause an “abrupt transition in building height on Foley Street” and would be “visually obtrusive”.
“Its excessive height and scale and would fail to adequately respect and complement the prevailing character and height of the existing streetscapes of Foley Street and Amiens Street,” the council said.
The North Star Hotel
Investment
The plans were lodged by Brian McGettigan, director of North Star Hotel, who has already overseen a multimillion-euro project to revamp the Dublin city centre hotel.
Some €20 million has already been invested in the creation of The Address, an 80-room boutique hotel contained within the North Star Hotel.
McGettigan told the Sunday Business Post last year that the group has also planned to invest €15 million in an upgrade of its Citywest development the Kingswood Hotel. Planning for this development has already been granted by South Dublin County Counil.
The hotel group’s chairman, Jim McGettigan, also said last year that €10 million would be spent on revamping the hotel formerly known as the Regency as the group also explored opportunities to acquire more hotels.
There is currently a flurry of new hotel developments and expansions underway across Dublin city to address a much-publicised shortage of tourism-related accommodation.
Failte Ireland has written to Dublin council on numerous occasions to support new applications to build and expand hotels in the capital and highlight the apparent shortage of rooms for tourists.
However, environmental heritage group An Taisce has warned that Dublin risks being overrun by hotels in the near future if the rate of development isn’t carefully managed.
