Carlisle Pier redevelopment put on hold

A plan to redevelop the Carlisle Pier in Dún Laoghaire has been put on hold after the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company withdrew preferred-bidder status from the consortium chosen to develop the project.

The harbour company made the decision yesterday in relation to Urban Capital because of delays in bringing forward a planning application for the project.

Urban Capital, a consortium including developers John Sisk & Son, Park Developments and hotelier and publican Hugh O'Regan, won a high-profile competition to develop the 19th-century derelict pier in March 2004 with a design by Heneghan Peng Architects.

The plan included a national marine life centre, a 127-bed hotel, 229 apartments, retail developments and a floating stage.

The competition involved public consultation on four shortlisted designs, including one by international architect Daniel Libeskind.

Urban Capital was expected to lodge an application with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in late 2004. This was postponed to the first quarter of 2005 pending engineering studies and then postponed again to September.

The consortium had held pre-planning discussions with the county council.

At a meeting of the harbour company yesterday afternoon the board voted unanimously to withdraw preferred-bidder status and said that the consortium had failed to meet the timetable for the submission of an acceptable planning application.

"It was granted two further extensions of time, both of which it failed to meet and, while it wishes to continue with the project, is not in position to say when it will submit an acceptable planning application," a spokesman said.

"The harbour company is now examining all its options for the redevelopment of the Carlisle Pier, including building the existing winning design but not with the people who put it forward."

A spokesman for the Urban Capital consortium said they were very disappointed with the harbour company's decision. They had invested €1.5 million and considerable time and effort in the project since they were chosen as preferred bidders, and felt that they would have been in a position to lodge an application within the next two months.

"There were issues in relation to the project agreement," he said. "Realistically we would have had to incur another €2 million additional costs to bring the project to application stage but no final project agreement was executed with the harbour company, and for us to incur the additional expenditure without the agreement was not possible.

He said that the "planning context" in Dún Laoghaire had changed since they had been chosen as preferred bidders, but they felt their design would have addressed public fears about access to the pier.