Developer plans to build refugee centre in Balbriggan as apartments plan falters

Rhonellen Developments’ Templar Place apartment development is earmarked for the site of a former Tesco shopping centre at the heart of the north Dublin town but is facing a legal challenge from a local residents’ group.

The group has claimed the large number of one-bed apartments in the scheme makes it an inappropriate development for the site.

In February 2022, Balbriggan Community Council applied to the High Court for a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s decision after the residents’ group launched a fundraising appeal to pay for the action.

Now Rhonellen, which declined to comment when contacted, has brought a motion of standing before the High Court to question the right of the community group to take the judicial review.

The outcome of that action could determine the liability for the costs of the legal action taken by the community group, according to sources.

The area around the town centre site now proposed for the apartment development has suffered significant dereliction

The original application for the apartment development had been made to demolish the shopping centre and build 19 studio apartments, 41 one-bed apartments and 41 two-bed apartments in three blocks, as well as two retail units.

An Bord Pleanála had granted permission for the apartment complex as a strategic housing development on condition that the seventh floor of one of the three blocks be omitted and that the total number of units be reduced to 95 from 101.

In its decision, the board said the proposal constituted “an acceptable quantum and density of development in this accessible urban location”.

But sources have told the Sunday Independent that the developer is now exploring the potential for a refugee accommodation centre as an alternative for the site and has sought a pre-planning meeting with local planners to discuss the option.​

In the decade since the Tesco store relocated to the new shopping centre, the area around the town centre site now proposed for the apartment development has suffered significant dereliction but substantial progress has been made in recent times to regenerate the wider area.

The current dilapidated six-storey building has been largely empty and unused since 2011

The site is close to the harbour and a new park area that is undergoing a substantial €15m refurbishment, and the current dilapidated six-storey building has been largely empty and unused since 2011 when the retailer opened what was then the largest Tesco store in Ireland at the newly built Millfield Centre on the edge of the north Dublin town.

Balbriggan has consistently been one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country and in 2023 it had the youngest average age of any Irish town at 33.6.

A search last week on Daft.ie showed just one rental property advertised in Balbriggan, a five-bedroom house for €3,000 a month.