- AirAsiaX boss behind hotel development
- Beds reduced form 170 to 121
- height reduced form 6 to 5 stories
- Ormond Hotel has become an eyesore
Dublin City Council has given the go-ahead for the €20m redevelopment of the Ormond Hotel by Monteco Holdings, a company part owned by AirAsiaX boss Tony Fernandes.
The firm hopes to commence construction in 2017 with a view to opening the hotel by the end of 2018. The hotel has been closed since April 2005.and was bought by Monteco for €2.5m.
The investment will create 250 construction jobs and 80 jobs in the hotel upon completion.
A spokesperson for Monteco Holdings said “ Our revised scheme has taken extensive steps to address objections raised to the previous application including reducing the numbers of bedrooms from 170 to 121 and lowering the height of the building from six to five storeys, the new hotel will help address the urgent lack of hotel accommodation in Dublin’s city centre and make a significant contribution to the rejuvenation of a site that has been vacant for over 10 years. Whilst the current buildings contain none of the physical structures referred to in Ulysses’ famous Sirens episode, the plan proposes that the original outline of numbers 8 and 9 Ormond Quay Upper, that is the original location of the Ormond Hotel and the setting for Ulysses, be marked out using text from the book embedded into the floor and courtyard with bronze plaques or lettering.”
The council granted planning permission in spite of opposition from the Save Joycean Dublin Committee and local residents. The planned redevelopment, which had been described as “unoriginal, corporate, bland, generic, and characterless” by Save Joycean Dublin committee member James Moore.
