New luxury apartments planned for prime Dalkey school site

Property development company Twinlite has lodged a planning application for a 50-unit luxury apartment scheme on a 3.14 acre site in Dalkey, which previously formed part of Castle Park School.

Seven curved pavilion-style apartment blocks, designed by McCauley Daye O’Connell architects, are proposed, and will comprise five one-beds (53-66sq m), 30 two-beds (88-117sq m) and 15 three-beds (153-184 sq m).

Located close to Dalkey village, Sandycove Point and other amenities, the development is likely to target affluent local downsizers based on the plan’s generous apartment proportions, sunny orientations and verdant setting.

If granted permission, the buildings will occupy about a quarter of the site and will be built in a curved line to avoid the removal of trees, according to the developer’s design statement.

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Winter gardens

Each of the three- to four-storey limestone-clad blocks will be linked by glazed winter gardens. A total of 80 car parking spaces and 50 bicycle spaces are provided for at basement level, with further guest parking facilities at surface level.

The Castle Park site has been earmarked for redevelopment since 2005, when planning permission was sought to build 81 homes on the land. A consortium including well-known developers agreed to buy the site in November 2004. Market sources expected the value of the deal to be only €10 million, however when the sale finally closed in June 2008 the school is understood to have received a much higher sum of around €19.8 million, which funded a €14.5 million redevelopment of its facilities.The consortium’s last attempt at redeveloping the site was in 2014, with a scheme of just 15 houses. The council refused planning permission, stating that the plans were “not considered to be of a sufficiently high density”.

Activate Capital

Subsequent to that refusal, the site went on the market seeking €5.75 million and was acquired by Twinlite in January 2017 for €4.35 million. It is understood that Activate Capital, the €500 million development fund, is funding the acquisition and development of the site.

Twinlite, owned by Michael and Rick Larkin, is behind a number of new schemes in the Dalkey area: Enderly on Cunningham Drive and another proposed development at Dalkey Manor awaiting an An Bord Pleanála planning decision.