U2 members seeking to expand hotel

Bono, the Edge and businessman Mr Harry Crosbie are seeking permission to expand the Clarence Hotel, five months after permission…

Bono, the Edge and businessman Mr Harry Crosbie are seeking permission to expand the Clarence Hotel, five months after permission for a larger expansion plan was turned down by Dublin City Council.

Brushfield Ltd, whose directors are U2's Paul Hewson (Bono), David Evans (The Edge), and property developer Harry Crosbie, is looking to expand into numbers 9-12 Wellington Quay and number 9 Essex Street East.

The three, who lease the hotel at 6-8 Wellington Quay and 6-8 Essex Street East from Anglo-Irish Bank, were refused permission last June to build a nine-storey hotel wing at numbers 8 and 9 Essex Street East because the new wing would be of "excessive" height and of a "severely uncompromising" design.

Now Brushfield is looking to build a seven-storey wing at numbers 8 and 9 Essex Street East, making it the same height as an existing section of the hotel. Numbers 9, 11 and 12 Wellington Quay would be changed to hotel use as well.