An appeal is being made to An Bord Pleanála against the refusal of planning permission for a €5 million office project in the city centre.
Galway City Council reject plans from the O’Malley Group (Homes and Development) Limited to demolish an existing office building and build a new seven storey office block in its place.
The building known as the St. Clare’s Walk building on St Augustine Street would be knocked and a new building with a junior library and office reception at ground floor and office use on all upper floors built in its place.
Part of the project would also involve significant work on the adjacent Hynes Building which houses Galway City Library.
The proposed project would involve a significant expansion to the ground floor library and the construction of three floors of new offices on top of the existing Hynes building.
An objection to this project was made by the MetLife Innovation Centre which leases offices at the Hynes building.
The objection said that they were never consulted on this project, claiming that it would have a serious impact on their premises and endanger their safe usage.
It was added that the development would, “prejudice the very substantial investment our client has made in the Met Life Global Technology Campus”.
The city council said that the proposed development was overly dense for the size of the site, and that its visual appearance was an “overbearing” expression onto the street that didn’t match the surrounding urban fabric.
The O’Malley Group lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála on October 1, and the higher planning authority is due to rule on the application by February 12 of next year.
