Board says yes to Portview Hotel plan

Portview Hotel in the heart of Dún Laoghaire is to be turned into houses and apartments.

An Bord Pleanála has given approval to plans to remodel the hotel located on a Georgian terrace on Marine Road.

The 22-bedroom hotel, which is a protected structure, is to be replaced by two terraced houses, two apartments, and three mews houses.

The owner of the Portview Hotel, Sean Duignan, sold the hotel last month for over €3.5 million.

Given the demand for apartments in the area, the Portview Hotel is one of a number of Dún Laoghaire hotels that are likely to be redeveloped.

Recently, the Pierre Hotel on Victoria Terrace in Dún Laoghaire sold for €4.5 million after approval to redevelop the hotel into 16 apartments was secured.

The Portview site is particularly well placed, given that it is opposite the new up-market Pavilion development.

The proposed scheme for the Portview site was originally given approval by planners at Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

However, it was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by local residents who argued that the proposed new development would harm the terrace's amenity and facilities and devalue their property.

The planning board, however, upheld the council's decision to approve plans to demolish extensions to the front and rear of the hotel, to reinstate the hotel building as two four-bedroom terraced hoses with two-bedroom garden level units underneath.

Permission has also been given to build three three-bedroom three-storey mews houses at the rear of the site, which will be accessed from an existing laneway.