Planning process for new Cherrywood town centre begins

Planning permission will be sought this week for the first stage of a €2 billion town centre development at Cherrywood in south Dublin that will eventually deliver up to 3,800 new homes.

US property giant Hines, which along with King Street Capital paid more than €280 million for a 400-acre site at Cherrywood last year, is to submit an application to the local council for 5.4km of new roads for the new town centre.

This will be followed by applications for three large amenity parks, including cycleways and footpaths, as the developer puts in place infrastructure ahead of plans for an initial 1,400 apartments next year.

Hines Ireland says the initial infrastructure rollout will create 150 new construction jobs when work commences next year. It hopes work will start towards the end of next year on the initial housing stock, as well as several shops, a cinema and other leisure facilities.

Commercial park

The site falls within an area designated as a strategic development zone (SDZ) by the Government, deemed crucial to meeting the crippling demand for housing in south Dublin.

The SDZ is between the N11 dual carriageway and the M50 in an area under the authority of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCC).

Cherrywood is home to a commercial park, but various developers who have snapped up sites in the vicinity, including Hines, plan to turn it into a town centre.

The three parks will comprise 57 acres, with the largest, Ticknick, including four playing pitches. The 22-acre Tully Park will be near the centre of the proposed new town, while Beckett Park will be located further inland but closer to the city end of the development.

Permission for Tully Park and the road network is being sought jointly by Hines and WM Neville & Sons, another landowner at Cherrywood.

Hines says it expects up to 30,000 people will live and work in the new town of Cherrywood, which will have four stops on the Luas Green Line and be adjacent to the city’s motorway network.

"We are acutely aware of the enormous public demand for new housing stock, particularly in the greater Dublin area," said Brian Moran, managing director of Hines Ireland. "We are working closely with DLRCC to speed up delivery of the housing and accommodation elements of the Cherrywood project."

Hines is a Texas-headquartered property group with assets under management of about $85 billion. Previous big commercial projects include the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, while it also considers itself a specialist in building large-scale new residential "communities".