RedevelopmentScheme: The regeneration of lower and Middle Gardiner Street is nearing completion as construction of an apartment and retail complex on the last open space along the street is nearly finished.

It draws to a close a highly successful regeneration project that has transformed a once downtrodden thoroughfare.

A striking €12 million project by Chesterbridge Developments Ltd at the corner of Gardiner Street Middle and Summerhill completes infill development along the street.

Less than 15 years ago, parking lots and vacant sites dominated the lower reaches of Gardiner Street. Now the street right up to Mountjoy Square is filled with new apartment and retail complexes and virtually all of Lower Gardiner Street to Beresford Place at the Customs House is given over to B & B accommodation and small office units.

Chesterbridge is a property vehicle for Paul Newman, Mick Whelan and Paul Hanby. This is the company's third inner city regeneration project: it follows on the 586-apartment Custom House Square development in the IFSC, Dublin 1 and St Patrick's Court in Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8, according to project manager for the Gardiner Street development, Shane van Rhyn.

The company bought the site from Dublin City Council in 2002 following a design competition that was won in conjunction with project architects, Anthony Reddy & Associates, explains van Rhyn.

"Following further extensive consultation with the neighbours, a design was achieved which we feel is visually striking for a prominent intersection such as Gardiner Street/Summerhill."

The building - just about completed by main contractor, John Paul Construction - is U-shaped and terraced from three floors up to five floors at the corner. It will be known as Belmont, with an address on Gardiner Street Middle.

It comprises a residential / retail mix offering 62 apartments, including 10 affordable apartments to be retained by the city council.

The two retail units that face Gardiner Street and Summerhill have a combined 353sq m (3,800sq ft) of floor space.

Castlebridge will retain ownership and will rent out its 52 apartment units which include 24 one-bedroom apartments, four one-bedroom units with study, 27 two-bedroom apartments and seven three-bedroom units.

There are 33 basement car-parking spaces.

The complex is designed around a central courtyard on the first floor level with an imposing entrance structure and stairs leading up to it off Gardiner Street Middle, says van Rhyn. The building is divided into four separate blocks leading off this central landscaped courtyard.

Its striking design is a far cry from the car-parking lots, blank spaces and derelict buildings, which are a thing of the past for Gardiner Street Middle and lower.

The change represents a substantial achievement for the city council's regeneration plans and the builders and developers who grasped the opportunities.

Once things started to happen they happened fairly quickly, said Hooke & MacDonald's managing director Ken MacDonald. He sold the first regeneration project on the street, Custom Hall, which was developed by Cosgrave Homes.

"It was certainly in need of renewal all right," MacDonald ventured. But once Custom Hall got underway it "kick started" the regeneration of the rest of the street, he says.

The initial Custom Hall offering was for about 30 apartments and they sold out during the first weekend, MacDonald said.

"It was a great success and it gave people confidence to develop the area."

The initial sale was in October 1992, a time when Gardiner Street didn't have the best of reputations. Many will recall the infamous "handbag corner", Gardiner Street at Summerhill, where motorists, particularly women, fell prey to thieves who would smash a car's passenger side window to steal handbags, briefcases or whatever presented itself.

The quick success of Custom Hall therefore took people by surprise, according to MacDonald, not least because so many of the early purchases were by first-time buyers and owner-occupiers. "A lot of them are still there and have built up equity," he adds.

In those days a one-bedroom unit sold for about £40,000 while a two-bedroom apartment cost between £50,000 and £55,000. The two-beds are now selling for in the region of €340,000 MacDonald estimates.

Custom Hall was quickly followed by another Cosgrave development, Gandon Hall, across the street and the race to develop was on, says Hooke & MacDonald's director, Des Donnelly.

Zoe developed 109 Parnell Street on the corner with Gardiner Street and also 52 Mountjoy Square, the former Hill 16 pub site just up from Chesterbridge's new Belmont.

Nearby Belmont Square was developed by Albion. "Gardiner Street is certainly proof that designation works," says Des Donnelly.

Some things don't change however. The famous "Tops in Pops" continues to trade, as it has for more than 20 years, from its retail location on the west side of Gardiner Street opposite the new Belmont development.