Some 180 apartments, a 10-storey "crystal tower" and a 5.5-acre maritime park are planned as part of a €140 million redevelopment of Dún Laoghaire's seafront.
A €30 million underground "waterworld" facility and a new breakwater and promenade joining the East Pier and the Forty Foot also form part of proposals drawn up by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Council officials last night announced their plans for the site of the former baths in Dún Laoghaire to local representatives.
Two years ago county councillors voted down controversial proposals to build a 19-storey tower on the dormant site.
The latest proposal will have to be considered by the council before display for public consultation.
"We're only at the very start of the process of deciding what to do with this very important site," one source said last night.
"At the end of the day, if the councillors don't like it, this plan won't go ahead."
Under the scheme drawn up by council architects, 5.5 acres of foreshore at Scotsman's Bay, between the East Pier and the old baths, are to be reclaimed for a maritime park with extensive sports and leisure facilities. A walkway will be created along the new breakwater down to the bathing spots at the Forty Foot.
Some 36 of 180 apartments would be social and affordable, while there would be retail units on the ground floor of the eight-storey granite and glass building on the baths site. There would be a 10-storey glass tower with a viewing platform.
The baths complex, dating from 1843, closed in the 1980s when it became too expensive to maintain.
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