An Empty Factory, and Unhappy Locals by Kenneth Long

by Kenneth Long

The location is Dublin’s South Inner City, the site of an old cigarette factory that closed its doors for the last time in 2005. The disputed issue is a proposal to build a large housing development by an American property developer, Hines Real Estate Ireland Limited. The Irish branch of a privately owned global real estate firm that has over $80 billion of assets under its management.

On the other side of the dispute are local residents of Dublin 8 who are opposed to the building of what would be a behemoth amongst their red brick terraced houses, that composite neighbourhoods like St Catherine’s and Donore, small quiet and compact enclaves that have always been as much a characteristic of Dublin as the Phoenix Park or St James’s Gate Guinness Brewery.

Not working-class communities nor are they home to the most well-to-do, they’re the kind of neighbourhoods that are Dublin’s spine, its back bone. The standoff between the global property investor and local residents has the veneer of a David vs Goliath struggle.

The Player Wills site was purchased by Hines Real Estate in 2018, who had already secured planning for the adjoining Bailey Gibson site for which they plan to construct 416 residential units. Along with the development of the nearby St Theresa Gardens the whole project, of which the Player Wills site is the third and final phase, will deliver 2,300 new homes and three towers that will be up to 19-storeys high.

If built these towers will be amongst the tallest in Ireland, similar in height to Liberty Hall in Dublin or the Elysian Tower in Cork, neither of which are in residential locations.

“We voiced our opposition to elements of the proposed planning applications, the overall height and density of the proposals” explains local Labour Party (LAB) councillor Darragh Moriarty. Cllr Moriarty has, along with Senator Rebecca Moynihan (LAB) led the political opposition on behalf of local residents.

The Player Wills factory lies right in the heart of Dublin’s South Inner City. Wedged between the artisan neighbourhoods of Portobello and Rialto. With The Coombe, one of the City’s oldest regions lying just behind the site, this tower block will loom large for all in the local area. Too large for many in fact.

One doesn’t need to be an urban developer to understand local opposition to such a build being plopped down in the middle of Dublin 8.

And it isn’t just the height of the buildings that have been objected to by various residents’ associations.

This project is a Build to Rent (BTR) development, with 240 co-living units comprising a third of the apartments. “Our concerns included the fact that the full development was ‘built to rent’ as opposed to having a better tenure mix and the co-living aspect contained in the Player Wills Factory building itself” , continues Cllr Moriarty.

Opposition to this development has been firm and longstanding ever since Hines bought the site in 2018. Upon purchase Hines and Dublin City Council (DCC) drew up a master plan for the site’s development. In doing so they shelved a previous master plan that had been agreed upon with local residents in 2017.

But a 19-storey tower would be out of all proportion in Dublin 8. All of the residential properties that surround the site are two-storey terraced houses. Red brick townhouses that have stood for decades around which communities were built, communities now under threat from a lack of affordable or adequate housing.

Having these apartments rented out and so large a co-living hub in the middle of their neighbourhood would ruin the community. These apartments, 60% of which will be one bedroom, 10% to 20% studios, will most likely be marketed to single people currently living in house shares. Family homes they are not. But what these apartments will be is expensive, according to the developers’ own estimates they will range from €1,300 p/m for a studio to €2,800 p/m for a three bedroom. This will price many local people out of their own neighbourhoods.

We voiced our opposition to elements of the proposed planning applications, the overall height and density of the proposals - Cllr Darragh Moriarty

Photo by Lisa Dantsig The Old Player Wills Factory with Hines insignia acting as a fence.

Since the property crash in 2008, the private sector is only interested in developing the kind of housing that will see a quick turnover, i.e. co-living hubs, BTR or student accommodation. Building such developments is easier, because you don’t have to build to as high a standard as you would for traditional homes.

For instance, a BTR apartment doesn’t need to be as big as a non-BTR apartment to secure planning permission. Subsequently, those in the market for a family home, say a two-storey terraced house, are getting priced out of the market, priced out of their own neighbourhoods.

According to Daft.ie there are only 196 homes for sale in Dublin 8 and 98 available for rent. Global pandemic notwithstanding these few properties only seem to increase in price and decrease in size to the point where they are nowhere near adequate enough for most. One bed apartments in Rialto at €1,600 per month or Christchurch at €1,800 per month are, of course, unaffordable.

A squeeze that is already being felt by everyone in Dublin 8 who know they won’t be able to see their children grow up in the same communities that their families have been living in for generations is intensified by this proposal.

And it is a proposal that symbolizes the housing crisis as a whole. The spectre of a wealthy American firm plopping an inordinately large tower on top of a community that is besieged by forces beyond their control.

Their defence has been to appeal An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission to the High Court. The High Court judge Mr Justice Richard Humphreys referred the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to see if the plans ought to be assessed for compliance with E.U. environmental directives.

Therefore, the Hines’ master plan, the second master plan can be put on hold for up to a year as the ECJ isn’t expected to publish its ruling until late next year. So instead of the housing that the local residents or the American developer wanted to see built, a site that is nine times the size of Croke Park, lying in the middle of a city enduring its worst housing crisis ever, will lie idle for another year. David has drawn a stalemate with Goliath.