Irish Glass Bottle site developers offer 86 affordable homes to Government but only 25 taken up

The consortium developing the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin said it had offered 86 affordable housing units to the Department of Housing in addition to 57 social units that will form part of the first phase of the project. However, just 25 of the 86 have so far been taken up.

The offer was made to fulfil the developers’ commitments under the overall planning scheme for the site, which will include 570 homes.

The group also said it had hired construction group Sisk to build the first phase of the Dublin 4 development. The consortium, which includes Johnny Ronan’s Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE), US private-equity firm Oaktree and Lioncor, a development company jointly owned by Oaktree and Dublin-based Alanis Capital, recently acquired the National Asset Management Agency’s (Nama) remaining 20 per cent stake in the project.

Long a symbol of Celtic Tiger hubris, the largest vacant plot in the capital is expected to ultimately deliver up to 3,800 homes, 25 per cent of which are earmarked for social and affordable housing.

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A wider plan for the 37-acre site also includes a million square feet of new life-science and innovation space, a hotel, retail outlets, a school and village green along with bars and restaurants accessing directly on to Sandymount strand.

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The partners secured planning approval from Dublin City Council in February for a further 324 homes and associated facilities. It is anticipated that works will commence on site for this phase later this year.

“The activation of the Glass Bottle site after 20 years lying dormant is hugely positive; the site represents a strategic development for Dublin with homes finally being built on a unique, large-scale development in heart of the city,” said John Maxwell, chief executive of Lioncor. “Nothing of this scale next to the waterfront has been built in Dublin.”

Nama had receivers appointed to two separate parts of the 37-acre site between 2011 and 2012 as the respective owners ran into financial trouble.

A company called Becbay, backed by developer Bernard McNamara, property financier Derek Quinlan and State agency the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, owned the 25-acre Glass Bottle land at that time. Becbay acquired the holding in 2006 for €412 million in an Anglo Irish Bank-backed deal. A company linked to boom-era developer Liam Carroll once held the remaining 12 acres.