Dublin Airport is to get a €100 million investment in a new terminal-linked hotel that will create up to 550 jobs on campus.
This follows Fingal County Council giving the green light to UK hotel group Arora for a new 410-bedroom luxury hotel adjacent to Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport.
The new hotel, which will have at least a four-star rating, is Arora’s first move into the Irish market.
Arora currently owns and operates 12 hotels including 10 airport hotels and has more than 5,000 bedrooms in the greater London area, including at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports.
The new hotel will be one of the largest hotels in Ireland when constructed.
The planned 11-storey hotel has a total floor area of 30,566 square metres and will feature a leisure centre with a gym, steam room, sauna and jacuzzi on the third floor, and a penthouse bar and executive lounge area on the top floor.
Underlining the scale of the development, one of the conditions attached to the grant of permission requires Arora Dublin T2 Ltd to pay €2.17 million in public infrastructure planning contributions to Fingal County Council.
Plans were lodged for the hotel last May after Arora was chosen by DAA through a public tender process to design and build, finance and operate a new hotel on a site just in front of the existing T2 car park.
Construction phase
Under the agreement with the DAA, the hotel is to be operated by Arora for 100 years and ownership will then revert to DAA.
The project is expected to have a 24-30 month construction phase and up to 300 construction jobs will be created during the works and the hotel will employ around 250 staff when it opens.
The new property will be the first terminal-linked hotel at Dublin Airport and typically, the average room occupancy levels and room rates of terminal-linked hotels are higher than for other hotels on an airport campus or in the environs of the airport due to the significant convenience factor of being located beside the terminal building.
The grant of permission decision may be subject to appeal to An Bord Pleanala which may at the very least delay construction work commencing by at least four month or scupper the project altogether if the appeals board overturns the council decision.
One individual who objected, P Keenan from Carrickhill Heights, Portmarnock told Fingal County Council that the hotel application must be refused stating “enough is enough.”
After outlining various developments constructed at the airport, P Keenan remarked: “Rather than more construction, a bit of judicious demolition is required on the Dublin Airport campus.”
P Keenan stated that “a more cohesive, integrated approach must be taken to planning at the airport. There is no immediate need for a hotel at Dublin Airport”.
