The idea that developer Johnny Ronan’s high-rise apartment plan in Dublin’s docklands will address the housing crisis is ‘just simply fantasy.’

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, planning author Frank McDonald said the plans are “wildly uneconomical” and would be better suited to Dubai or Manhattan.

“Nothing like this have ever been proposed for Dublin before,” he said.

“The only structures in the city that would outrun it in height would be the Poolbeg stacks and they are not even buildings, they are just two chimneys that are redundant now.

“This kind of scale is simply unjustified.”

He noted that the proposals will see towers twice the size of the city’s current tallest building springing up just outside the city centre.

“One of them would be 45 stories high,” he said. “The capital Dock opposite on the South Quay is 79 metres high so it will be more than twice the height of Capital Dock and nearly three times the height of Liberty Hall.

“Behind that 45-story tower, there will be another 41-story tower that will be set at a diagonal angle to it and it would contain a total of 1,005 apartments – mostly one-bedroom units, two-bedroom apartments and a few three-bedroom penthouse units.”

Property developer and businessman Johnny Ronan pictured at the official opening of the Convention Centre Dublin, 07-09-2010. Image: Laura Hutton/RollingNews

He noted that 1010 of the apartments have been offered to Dublin City Council (DCC) for over €66m.

“That works out at roughly €660,000 per flat for Dublin City Council,” he said.

“The council housing element would be clustered at the back of the scheme away from the river and have lower floor to ceiling heights than the standard apartments.

“Half the standard apartments would be build-to-rent – in other words you won’t be able to buy them – and half of them would be available for sale at presumably enormous prices, even more than what DCC is proposed to be charged.

“So, the idea that this is some sort of solution for the housing crisis in Dublin and particularly housing affordability in Dublin is just simply fantasy.”

High-rise development

Mr McDonald said there is a “very strong cheerleader lobby for high-rise development” but insisted that five to eight stories is the “sweet spot when it comes to residential development.”

“It can be provided much more economically than high-rise,” he said.

“With high-rise the likes of which are proposed here, you are going to need more lifts, extra fire safety precautions, secondary stairs, sprinkler systems and all the rest.

“So, the cost per square metre of delivering buildings of this huge scale – which are really the scale of Manhattan or Dubai – it is just wildly uneconomical so I just don’ t really understand why they are pressing forward with it.”

The Former Environment Correspondent for the Irish Times Frank McDonald arriving at Leinster House in Dublin ahead of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis, 12-03-2015. Image: Sam Boal /Photocall Ireland

The High Court has already upheld the planning scheme for the area and Mr McDonald said the plans will be struck down by the courts even if permission is granted.

He labelled the entire project a, “kind of a bizarrely surreal and hubristic play that should have been cancelled immediately after its first performance.”

In a statement, the Ronan Group said the docklands site offers a chance for large-scale urban regeneration at a remove from the city’s historical core.

“Far from destroying the skyline, it should point a way to a more ambitious future, an end to suburban sprawl, lengthy commutes, traffic and emissions which are the legacy of the poor planning decisions of the past,” it said.

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