Waterford council gives go-ahead for seven-storey hotel in Dungarvan

The property which Mr Ryan purchased from the Flynn Group some 16 years ago, was formerly a Glanbia laboratory and office complex and has been vacant since the mid-1990s.

It sits adjacent to the Old Bank building which Mr Ryan purchased in 2017 and serves as a restaurant and cocktail bar.

The site comprises two parcels of land. The main entrance, on 0.42 hectares fronts onto the junction of Davitt’s Quay and TJ Meagher Street to the east. A smaller 0.14 hectare site leads onto Richard A Walsh Street to the west.

In 2021, Waterford council — and subsequently An Bord Pleanála — refused Mr Ryan initial planning for a nine-storey, 65-room boutique hotel on the same site. It would have been by far the tallest building in Dungarvan and both authorities deemed it visually inappropriate and excessively domineering.

The hotel will facilitate 42 bedrooms and 42 aparthotel rooms through the first to fifth floors.

The sixth floor will house a penthouse suite with balconies/terrace area(s), along with further aparthotel rooms.

The ground floor, meanwhile, will comprise two function halls with capacity to integrate to a single larger space, a lobby/reception, publicly accessible café and bar, indoor and outdoor seating, toilets, and kitchen.

The plans further include 48 car parking spaces, of which three will accommodate disabled bays on the existing Western Terrace car park site. There is provision for 26 cycle bays.

Permission was granted with 21 conditions.

The development is likely to be welcomed enthusiastically in the town as Dungarvan’s growing tourism core, driven by the popular greenway, sees the town falling far short of the bed spaces needed to meet the demand.

The well-known proprietor of the Al Eile stud farm in Kilgobnet, Mr Ryan has previously received planning for a 40-bed hotel and restaurant with car park on two sites divided by a roadway, within 50m from Bridge House. That development has yet to start.