Plan for former ESB shop in Temple Bar criticised

An Taisce has criticised a proposal to redevelop the former ESB showrooms at the entrance to Temple Bar on Fleet Street, Dublin 2, saying the design is trying to cram-in too many floors and is out of scale in an area of great historic sensitivity.

The building adjoins Westmoreland Street to the east "which is part of the great north/south Georgian axis developed around 1800 by the Wide Streets Commissioners".

Aztec Properties, controlled by Wexford-based Stafford Holdings, bought the 1960s building for €33 million and plans to demolish it for a six-storey block with two further storeys set back. An Taisce says the height is "over and above" the five-storey scale of Westmoreland Street and, while Fleet Street has larger structures at its eastern end ("notably the leaden 1990s Fleet Street multi-storey car park"), the planned building is of greater scale than anything in the immediate area. If it goes ahead the development would have 1,313sq m (14,133sq ft) of retail space at street level and a further 1,299sq m (13,982sq ft) in the upper basement.

Office space on floors one to seven will extend to 8,188sq m (88,135sq ft). The Fleet Street premises was one of a small number of ESB buildings excluded from the sale of its retail network to Bank of Scotland (Ireland).