Owner makes fresh bid to build hotel at former Guineys store

Guineys

Paul Healy

THE OWNER of the historic former Guineys premises on Talbot Street has made a new bid to build a hotel on the site.

Noel Tynan, who also runs The Celt Pub and Le Bon Crubeen restaurant next door, was refused planning permission for the project by Dublin City Council last year.

Now a new application has been submitted.

Planners originally rejected the application due to the size of a proposed extension. The new application has scrapped the planned top floor.

Council officials had also expressed concern that it was contrary to a city plan to maintain the area as part of the "premier shopping area in the state".

Now the businessman plans to build a smaller 35-bedroom hotel and a small retail unit that he hopes will meet the planners' requirements.

If the hotel is built, Mr Tynan aims to take on up to 60 staff. He wants to have the hotel built by the middle of next year.

The initial application was for 52 bedrooms, but since the top floor was discarded it will now have 35 if approved.

"It's a pity we had to lose some rooms, but we're hoping to get the permission from the planners now," said Mr Tynan.

The new application has also dropped plans for a restaurant in the hotel.

Mr Tynan said the initial refusal of planning permission, which found that the hotel would be contrary "to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area", was unfair.

"They sent me a letter in which they said that this was a shopping street, but we have two successful businesses that aren't retail and with 58 staff, so that argument doesn't hold up," he said.

"Yet that's what the planners are basing their decision on."

Mr Tynan said he has the "widespread support" of businesses on Talbot Street, and sees no reason why his application to build the hotel should now be refused.

Billy Corr, the manager of Gerry Keane Wallpaper's, across the street, said he was "behind Noel Tynan 100pc".

prioritised

Mr Corr said he could not understand the idea that the area should be prioritised for retail, citing several recent shop closures.

"With the amount of shops closing here, how anyone could object to this is beyond me," he said.

A decision on the planning application is expected in the next six weeks.

Guineys & Co operated on Talbot Street for 90 years and was the sister shop of Clerys on O'Connell Street.

It was set up by Denis Guiney, who bought Clerys in 1941. Guineys fell into financial difficulty and eventually went into liquidation in 2012.