Charltons lodge Ballsbridge development plans after Pat Kenny row

The family of the late solicitor Gerard Charlton might not have anticipated the media frenzy that erupted concerning the sale of their family home, Maple Tree House in Dalkey, along with an adjoining site, to the Bartra Property Group. Revealed here last August, Bartra's proposed redevelopment of the properties made headlines due to opposition by broadcaster neighbour Pat Kenny, with whom the Charltons were previously embroiled in a legal row in 2006 concerning a 0.2-acre rocky outcrop adjoining their homes. It seems that the Charltons are now planning a development play of their own in Ballsbridge.

Metropolitan Properties, an investment vehicle controlled by Charlton family members, owns number 20 Baggot Street in Dublin 4. According to the commercial rents register, the property’s various tenants, which include Insomnia Coffee, pay at least €101,000 in rent per annum. The property also features an unusually long rear mews site, for which planning has now been sought to redevelop as three new luxury residential properties.

The largest, a four-storey townhouse fronting onto Eastmoreland Lane, would feature four bedrooms, five bathrooms, two floors of living space and two separate roof gardens. To the rear of this house, the Charltons intend to develop a one-bed and two-bed apartment, each with private outdoor space. The overall size of the new development will be nearly triple the size of the existing 107 sq m (1,151 sq ft) structure that occupies the site. In 2006, the same company was refused planning permission for a four-storey office development on the site following an objection from a neighbouring owner.

Meanwhile, back in Dalkey, Bartra is awaiting the outcome of its planning application. Appellants to the scheme include Denise Charlton, who lives in a neighbouring home. Another Charlton family member lives directly beside the development site, but given that she and her husband sold part of the site to Bartra, it is standard for vendors of a site who are remaining in situ next door to agree under the sales contract to be precluded from objecting to any planning application subsequently lodged in respect of the lands they are sellings.