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A TRUST LINKED to one of Ireland’s richest men, billionaire financier Dermot Desmond, has secured planning permission to construct a palatial mansion on Shrewsbury Road in south Dublin.
In getting the go-ahead for the ambitious mansion plan, Desmond has also been given the green light to demolish the existing house at Walford – the most expensive house ever sold in the state, which traded hands for €58 million in 2005.
Previous attempts to knock down Walford – built in 1902 – have failed with the planners, but the all-clear has been given to Desmond’s Isle of Man-registered Celtic Trustees Limited, which lists his children as the beneficiaries.
The Desmond-linked company paid €14.25 million for Walford in December 2016. Desmond later sued over the alleged leaking of confidential information about his purchase of the house from a firm connected to bankrupt developer Sean Dunne.
Its approved plan for the house – three-times larger than the house to be demolished – includes four large en-suite bedrooms all with walk-in wardrobes. The three bedrooms to the rear will have balconies that overlook the garden.
The size of the sprawling Walford site, at 1.77 acres, is the property’s most valuable feature. There is an open field to the rear of the run-down house.
Desmond, the largest shareholder in Celtic FC and part-owner of Independent News and Media, has recruited three-time Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner Marcus Barnett to oversee the creation the private garden.
The planning application also comprises of a basement that includes a subterranean swimming pool, gym, cellar, games room and staff bedroom, which looks out onto a sunken courtyard.
Planning documents said: “In the interests of transparency, we can confirm that the dwelling is intended for use as the private dwelling of Dermot Desmond.”
The planning application contains a series of internal photos of the “trophy property” at Walford showing the extent to which the house has fallen into disrepair over the years.
The city council planning report into the case recommended that planning be granted after its planner visited the site and said that she agreed with the applicant that the existing house “does not have significant features which would require its retention”.
On the replacement house, the planner stated:
While the scale of the new property is significantly larger, it is designed so that it is suitable to its setting. The site will be vastly improved with the proposed landscaping scheme and with the re-development of the site.
The planning report added that “the demolition of the current property in this specific instance is considered to be acceptable”.
There were no objections lodged against the plan. The only third-party submission was a letter of support from neighbour, Moya Coulson, wife of financier Paul Coulson who also features prominently on Irish ‘rich lists’.
In her submission, Coulson offered her support to the plan and told planners that Walford “has remained unoccupied and in a state of near dereliction for almost 15 years presenting a very poor image to the road”.
Coulson said that the current house “is a building of dubious quality and certainly is not any architectural merit” and the Desmond plan as the new house “will be an enhancement to Shrewsbury Road”.
The go-ahead for the demolition of Walford and the development of the mansion marks the end of a 13-year long saga, which began in July 2005 when Walford was sold for €58 million to a mystery buyer.
The identity of the purchaser remained shrouded in secrecy but it was reported to be Dunne. It was later claimed by his wife and former newspaper columnist Gayle Killilea that ownership of the house had been transferred to her in 2005.
The property was later transferred to a Cypriot company, Yesreb Holdings, before being sold to the Desmond trust in December 2016.
Written by Gordon Deegan and posted on Fora.ie
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Oh thank god he won’t be homeless. That’s a relief.
@Brian Waldron: The state should have purchased the site and converted it to an asylum seekers processing centre with a halting site constructed in the acre garden. What better place for it – the heart of liberal D4.
@TLH: you think D4 is liberal??
@TLH: Funniest comment of the day.
D4 liberal lol.
I’m getting an extension if anyone cares.
@prop joe:
Im sure your Missus will be delighted with the extension. God bless plastic surgery.
@prop joe: congratulations
@prop joe: what’s your planning permission number, I need to send an objection #theIrishWay
58,000,000 for the site, for the state to pick up the tab and now a single house is getting built on it? With a billionaire owner. Lol! If anything highlights the madness of the boom, this is it. Sean Dunne asked his wife to pick a figure, she didn’t know what for, she said 58 and that’s the figure that Sean dunne paid in millions or later the taxpayer would end up in the shitter for. Disgusting!
@Shane Zerbe: Did it go into Nama?
@Cian: I can only assume so… what kind of bank would have sanctioned that loan! Anglo I’m assuming, but the others weren’t too far behind in the lunacy
@Cian: shhh. Its top secret how taxpayer money is spent
@prop joe: I’m only speculating but I’d wager that he actually paid the 58m.
@Shane Zerbe: Now you wouldn’t be suggesting that Anglo might have over valued a property as a way of funneling money to a developer because that’d be illegal…;-)
B&Q doing great deals on Dulux weather shield with free wire brush thrown in!
Well I for one am delighted for the Desmond’s. Although he’ll probably have to put on a water butt and give the council €900 contribution as a planning condition like I did for me 12×12 extension. And like me, he’ll have to borrow it off his Ma.
He’s free to do what he wants. But you cant buy taste. The wealthy classes here are ridiculous and their copies of old aristocracy a joke.
@andrew: if you know where to look, in many quiet and unassuming corners, there are some ABSOLUTELY STUNNING examples of modern architecture. Many people with money do have incredible taste as well. Don’t tar them all.
@andrew: staff quarters and all. Suffering jaysus!
@andrew: Who cares what he builds. He’s spending a load of his money, people will get work building it, materials will have to be bought, money will have to be spent decorating it. Better than being being a miser.
@Malachy Guilfoyle: What was that about the neighbour saying the house was of “dubious quality”. After standing for 116 years. I’d hate to see what she thinks of the rubbish that gets built in the suburbs nowadays.
@Gulliver Foyle: Doesn’t mean it was great quality because it stood for 116 years. I had a cottage that age and it was damp, freezing and a nightmare to maintain
Must be nice to be rich
@classic: money can’t buy u everything
@Harry: ..”but a little bit is good for the nerves” (said some actor who I forget).
@classic: Well my granny always said money won’t buy you happiness. But it can buy a very comfortable class of misery.
Wondering what kind of friends this fella has in the department
@Alan Scott: Well so far he was (this is public domain, journal eds) guilty of enriching Haughey (rezoning IFSC, sale of JMB site) via Cayman island accounts, bought out NCB with Sean Quinn’s heavily hedged loans, 25% owner of Esat at the time of Lowry’s bribes, guilty of lying at the Glackin, Flood and Moriarty tribunals.
But who knows, maybe it is just luck that someone in the state supports knocking down turn of the last century, valued at tens of millions a few years ago, house in the city, while most can’t even get a retention for a wall over 6 foot in the suburbs. Maybe.
So happy for our Dermo. I believe he’ll make the gardens open to the public.
How is this news.
To make room for a mustache parlor and his WW1 German helmet collection
Hilarious. Denis o brien lived a few doors down the road and wanted to knock his gaff and Desmond stopped it.
Was his excuse the turn of the century house was beyond repair ? I don’t think I’d be allowed knock it down
With all these new works going on if there isn’t an existing water meter for the site, will they be installing one?
It must be really weird to be that rich. Death must be a horrible prospect. The one thing you can’t buy your way out of.
So is this where all the money Celtic have made over the last couple of years gone 60 million at least from the Champions League and transfers.
Looks like a rapper’s house.
Hail Hail !!
Get into Zen Dennis, you can’t take any of this with you when your life ends.
You’d be better off building a pyramid and communicating with aliens in the afterlife.
Glutton.
A mish mash of S hite to be replaced by same nothing like new money to show up the rabble . That poor man came from West Cork and started with nothing which kinda shows .
In for a penny, in for a pound.
In an interesting plot twist, Desmond has announced he plans to build Ireland’s largest homeless shelter on the site. True story.
The fool Murphy probably sees this as housing developments.
The poor man’s Blenheim Palace is about to be knocked up
Never realised hes a billionaire. Billion dollar man.
Disgusting. Why is this not a protected building. Although who cares he’s rich so f… the rules.
if you can afford it, the planning authority is the way to go.
The guardian do the homeless crises:https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/05/dublin-homelessness-crisis-jars-with-narrative-of-irish-economic-boom
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