Developer losing £43,000 a week

Delays in starting work on the redevelopment of the proposed Hilton hotel site at College Street, Dublin, is costing the developer…

Delays in starting work on the redevelopment of the proposed Hilton hotel site at College Street, Dublin, is costing the developer £43,000 a week, the High Court has been told.

Work on the development of a £30 million hotel and office block, or alternatively an office complex, has been banned since last week after conservationists were granted a development restraining order.

The immediate future of the development will be determined tomorrow at a special sitting of the High Court before Mr Justice Quirke.

The matter was to have been decided yesterday, but had to be adjourned after Mr Justice O'Sullivan said he had acted for An Bord Pleanala in a related matter while practising at the Bar.

READ MORE

Last week Mr Justice O'Higgins granted Lancefort Ltd, an incorporated group of environmentalists, an injunction ordering the immediate cessation of works on the site after the developer, Treasury Holdings Ltd, and P.J. Wall and Co, builders, had erected a hoarding around the site, which is opposite Trinity College.

Mr Colm Mac Eochaidh, counsel for Lancefort, had told the court nobody knew what was to be built on the triangular site bounded by Westmoreland Street, Fleet Street and College Street, which contained several important historic buildings.

He said that An Bord Pleanala had granted two planning permissions, one including a hotel, both of which entailed facade retention. The hotel proposal had already been objected to before the High Court on the grounds that no environmental impact assessment had been carried out. Mrs Justice McGuinness's judgment on this is awaited in the new law term, which begins next Monday.

Mr Mac Eochaidh said that the site was owned by Allied Irish Banks, which had served notices of commencement on Dublin Corporation. Work had gone ahead on the erection of a hoarding before agreement had been reached with the corporation.

When Mr Denis McDonald, counsel for Treasury Holdings Ltd, told the court yesterday that delays were costing his client £43,000 a week, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said that the matter would be heard tomorrow.