[article] Dublin Bus & Luas Come Together

dmeehan

From today's Indo
Link: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=302&si=1596631&issue_id=13912

The Irish Independent wrote:

€70m city interchange plan gets go ahead

CIE and Dublin Bus have used a public private partnership (PPP) mechanism to procure Dublin's first off street Bus/Luas interchange at Abbey Street, close to the Jervis Shopping Centre.

Following a tendering process, a consortium of O'Dwyer Leisure and Bennett Construction has been chosen as the preferred bidder to build the facility at no cost to Dublin Bus, in return for CIE disposing of the air rights and basement of the 0.87 acre site between Abbey Street and Great Strand Street.

The site value extracted is in excess of €40m, with an anticipated overall development cost of more than €70m. Agents were Jones Lang Wootton.

O'Dwyers are proposing to build a three star hotel on the upper floors, subject to planning permission. This will complement their existing pub premises, the Zanzibar on Lower Ormond Quay for which they have planning permission to enlarge into a hotel.

The bus interchange will comprise eight drive through bays, which will cater for up to 50 buses per hour, both entering and exiting buses will enter from Abbey Street and exit only onto Great Strand Street, heading west towards Capel Street.

There will be enclosed passenger waiting areas, staff facilities and a large retail unit which will be offered to the market.

This project is the culmination of a number of years of detailed planning, in consultation with Dublin City Council and the Rail Procurement Agency. It aims to change the face of passenger facilities for Dublin commuters, proving a high quality/safe environment and improve the city centre as a shopping destination.

paulm17781

Wait a moment, that sounds like CIE disposing of property to benefit passengers. Shame they can't do this with rail.

Definitely a welcom development though.

Chris_533976

€70 million? What are they doing, gold plating the floors?

John R

Chris_533976 wrote:

€70 million? What are they doing, gold plating the floors?

Who cares. The city gets a much needed facility for nothing so whatever plans the developers have for the rest of the site is worth it.

It is just a pity this sort of thing wasn't a requirement for other bigger development sites in the past.



Pre-LUAS this site was used by Dublin Bus as off-street parking.

dmeehan

are there any "artists impressions" or plans floating around the interweb?

Victor

at no cost to Dublin Bus, in return for CIE disposing of the air rights and basement of the 0.87 acre site ....

The site value extracted is in excess of €40m,

Erm at €40m cost to CIE though.

Chris_533976

I cannot believe this is costing €70 million. In all fairness. That seems like an atrotious amount of money for what is basicially a glorified warehouse with a few rails in it.

Victor

There will be no rails. The €70 million is for the overhead offices.

A Dub in Glasgo

Am I reading this correctly

CIE give the land to this consortium

The consortium builds an 8 road bus interchange including passenger shelter and staff facilities. CIE will own this facility

The consortium will then build a combination of hotel / underground secure parking and retail units on the site over, under and to the side of the bus interchange. This will be owned by the consortium

All of the above is quoted at €70m which the consortium will pay.

John R

That's basically it.
Although the article says "in return for CIE disposing of the air rights and basement of the 0.87 acre site".

That could possibly mean money was paid for the rights, 'tis a bit unclear.

John R

dmeehan wrote:

are there any "artists impressions" or plans floating around the interweb?

I doubt it, CIE had not planned to build an interchange themselves so they wouldn't have made plans themselves. It will more than likely be left to the developers to plan the whole construction with CIE having approval over the interchange design.

Transport21 Fan

What I find interesting is that Dublin Bus intelligently took advantage of their air rights above the location on Jervis Street to create a public transport centre of merit and one with very good integration with the Luas. Irish Rail on the other hand stick a low rise pre-fab station north of Sherrif Street with the nearest two Luas stations hundreds of meters walk away and call it fully integrated.

Just like in Jervis Street, CIE did not have to give up a single inch of Spencer Dock surface area - the options were a plenty and in the end we got a total joke in Docklands station. Spencer Dock could of all been used for a major station with the offices and apartments above the tracks like Union Station in Chicago or Penn Station in New York. There was no need to sacriface any of it - let alone ALL of it (it is becoming increasing obvious that Irish Rail intend to eventually demolish Docklands station, mothball the Midland line and brick up the Phoenix Park "works tunnel"). This is the real sickner and it's just compounded further by how another CIE entity BAC, came up with the correct solution at Jervis Street.

If Irish Rail were a homeowner and some cash-laden and eager property developer were to approach them and say "we want to build several luxury apartments for our exclusive clientel on the site of your home. We would very much like to buy your house and land for this purpose - what's your asking price?" Irish Rail the homeowner would reply. "No problem, just buy me a sleeping bag and let me kip in the basement and the site and house is all yours."