DESPITE 52 objections to his proposal to turn an apartment building in his Gasworks development in Ringsend into a hotel, developer Liam Carroll has got the all-clear from Dublin City Council. While we’re guessing that An Bord Pleanála will be having a say in the matter, the council at least has cleared the way for him to turn the Alliance Building into a whopping 520-bed hotel at Barrow Street, Dublin 4.

Will this set a precedent for other developers to follow suit with struggling apartment developments, we wonder?

The 210 apartments built inside the Victorian gasholder in the nine-storey cyclindrical building have been vacant since they went on sale two years ago and failed to sell in sufficient numbers to make the scheme viable.

The developer will build a four-storey glazed roof “springing” from the first floor level over the internal courtyard to incorporate this space in the hotel. There would be a new three-storey glazed entrance to the hotel. Residents of the Gasworks objected in large numbers, saying that a 500-plus room hotel is too big in a residential complex and would ruin the quiet and safe atmosphere of the development.