Planning permission has been granted for a residential, hotel and retail development in Dublin.

Developer Sean Dunn has faced a six-year wait for the permission to redevelop the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels in Ballsbridge.

An Bord Pleanála have now given the go ahead for the ten year permission sought for the €300 million development.

The site comprises lands bounded by Lansdowne Road to the north, Shelbourne Road to the east, Pembroke Road to the west, and the former Veterinary College site to the south, located at Ballsbridge in County Dublin.

However it has been reported that it could be five years before the work begins.

The plans, designed by Irish architects O’Mahony Pike, will allow for the development of 490 residential units with an average floor area of 125m2 (1,345 sq ft), in eleven residential blocks ranging in height from six to 12 storeys. It will also allow the group to construct a 151-bedroom hotel.

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A retail area of 4,000m2 (43,000 sq ft) with an anchor capacity of 2,000m2 (22,150 sq ft) will be completed to house a restaurant; café; bars; crèche; healthcare; and 920 underground car spaces, 899 bicycle spaces and 72 motorbike spaces.

The original scheme also contained more than 27,000sq.m of retail space and 42,000sq.m of office units but was completely rejected by An Bord Pleanála.

There were a number of objections to the latest scheme from local residents but today one spokeswoman acknowledged that it had been "scaled back massively" from the original proposal.

Gone is the proposed 37-storey "diamond-cut" tower, embassy block and large-scale retail, replaced with a largely residential scheme with buildings no taller than 12-storeys.

While this is still considerably taller than the prevailing building height, it is a world apart from the "landmark" building, originally proposed by Mr Dunne.

Mr Dunn bought the site in 2005 at more than €50 million an acre in one of the biggest property deals in the history of the Irish State.

For contact details and further information: www.cisireland.com

(LB/BMcC)