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The fact that the Luas couldn’t go any further is probably the main reason!!!!

I’m not so sure that the Dame Street area is that much busier than the Green during the week; there has been a lot of office development over recent years in areas such as Harcourt St, Hatch Street, Kevin Street, Golden Lane etc. The logic is that people will walk from High St to Dame St but would be unlikely to walk from Dame St to Charlemont Street or Portebello.

Catchment for underground is I reckon 400-750m depending on the individual.

Integrated ticketing is a must whatever they do and 3 years after the RPA launched theirs with great fanfare it doesn’t work.

Can’t see a book shop in the market for more than 20,000 sq feet which is only a third of the floor area discussed. With Waterstones already on the Street that only leaves Borders as an occupier on that scale who are actively acquiring.

They may or may not want to come in town given their existing presence at Westend retail park Dublin 15.

So it looks like an all or nothing situation!

Call me a sentimental fool to worry about a 1960’s office building but I think that this building more than any other stands for all that was good in the economic renaisance under Lemass and symbolised the commercialised New Ireland they sought and successfully delivered.

The market will probably win on this one but it will be a shame that the era only has a tobaconists building to be remembered by

I hope that the doorcase at the very least is preserved if not the facade of the Dawson lane building; the side frontage would make some spectacle if glazed like Castlethorn’s Gaiety Centre on South King St and is South Facing

I think that any proposal to build a scheme of 6,000 units serviced by nothing other than a road link is audacious.

If planners are considering this seriously they should be dismissed without notice.

I agree with Angry Rebel that there are not 250,000 vacant units being actively marketed in places that are convenient to the major employment centres.

However if the stamp duty issue meets such disunity post election as it has pre-election then there will be a similar number of houses for sale and no-one in a position to buy them. Given the importance of the property sector to the economy the current vaccuum can only be considered to be a case of serious mis-management of the economy. In 1977 the abolition of domestic property rates led to a boom that bust. The current situation could be best desribed as a market in a death by punitive tax psychosis. Prices are falling and estate agents fees rising if that doesn’t tell you the way things are nothing will.

To talk about redeveloping Dublin Port whilst the market is collapsing is dishonest. I saw Durkan homes doing a single home renovation in Hampstead last week do you think they’d be doing this 2 years ago?

Land Securities have expressely ruled out the use of carbon off setting or the purchase of carbon credits as ways of acheiving a caron neutral portfolio by 2012 in line with their environmental portfolio policy.

http://www.shopping-centre.co.uk

It kind of puts Dick’s light bulb plan predicated on the purchase of carbon credits from compliant countries for billions into perspective.

Dick for UCD

Land Sec, to out perform

I wonder why?

Economist warns on 5% house price fall
Monday, 21 May 2007 09:14
The construction economist, Jerome Casey has warned that the current downturn in the housing market could become a housing bust unless competitive issues in the economy are addressed through Government policy.

Mr Casey says structural difficulties in the economy, in relation to competitiveness, energy and healthcare, have been unmasked by the tailing off in the housing boom.

Writing in the latest edition of Building Industry Bulletin, Mr Casey argues that a stable housing industry needs to be founded on a competitive economy and housing expectations have outrun the economic underpinnings since 2002.

AdvertisementHe says economic growth will be constrained until competitiveness problems in the economy are overcome and that this will have a negative impact on house values.

He is predicting house prices will fall 5% this year and by up to a further 10% in 2008, while house completions will drop to 62,000 per year over the next five years.

Properties most vulnerable to sharp falls in value include holiday homes in the West and one-off houses with a 60 minute car drive to work, he says.

According to Mr Casey, unless the Government introduces policies to restore competitiveness, then the cyclical downturn in the property market of 2007 (and which is expected to continue into 2008) will turn into a ‘structural housing bust’.

He also notes that thus far, demand for new housing has been dominated by what he terms ‘housing insiders’ who are either existing house owners or investors, rather than first time buyers.

So much for prudent management of the economy. If construction goes you will be using Ryanair a lot more. This election promise from the PD’s and the way that FF have fluffed it has almost recreated the 1980’s again

It is now time to protect the value of the existing housing stock and stop all permissions for one off houses

Graham we will return to these images in June as there is a very real angle here.

Kenny slams Government’s environment record
From ireland.com12:30Saturday, 19th May, 2007
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny today criticised what he said was the Government’s “appalling” record on the environment, warning that a change in government was the only way to deal with the serious environmental challenges that lie ahead.

Mr Kenny said the Government had missed all of Ireland’s Kyoto targets and the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased at twice the target rate.

He also highlighted the fact that Ireland was now ranked 22nd out of 27 EU countries in terms of wind, wave and biomass generation, despite having the best potential in the EU and that only 3 per cent of Ireland’s primary energy supply comes from renewable sources.

Outlining his party’s environmental policy at a new recycling centre in Co Mayo, Mr Kenny said Fine Gael was committed to meeting these challenges head-on.

He said, if elected, his party would establish a department of energy and environment to co-ordinate all climate change initiatives.

The party also wished to lower VRT for drivers of energy efficient cars and abolish excise duty on bio fuels to increase production.

Fine Gael, he said, was committed to a recycling target of 50 per cent of household waste and would reduce government department and agency CO2 emissions by 2 per cent per year.

“Not too long ago many people in mainstream society saw climate change and green issues as peripheral issues. Today they are clearly central to our future,” Mr Kenny said.

“Every day new studies and new predictions are published on the pace and consequences of climate change and the failure to protect our environment. But the FF/PD Government’s record on the environment is appalling,” he said.

“Fine Gael and Labour will bring a fresh approach and new ideas to Government that will make a real difference to the environment,” Mr Kenny said.

There is now a real choice

Darkman are you trying to take the piss ? practically every contribution of yours references high rise.

Darkman’s posts on this thread

The Docklands is a failure – a failure of enlightenment of highrise development – a sympthom of failure of Irish attitude to change. Our tallest building after the Celtic Tiger is 70m high

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This is exactly the attitude im talking about. Its always why should we do this or why should we do that. Never why we can do that and we will. This is the problem.

Its not your fault of course. Its an Irish thing. Whatever we do – make sure we build it too friggin small – thats the mentality.

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Its not about whether Dublin has tall buildings or not – well actually it is in a way because it’s a sympthom of a strange attitude we have of thinking too small.

Im not arguing for Skyscrapers or to turn Dublin into Shanghai or anything like that. What im saying is we build too small. Even the most rose tinted spectacles of some contributers would see this is the case.

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Go to Dubai (a city in a small country) and look at their ambition. It puts us to shame. Ive every right to be angry at our failure to create a capital to be proud of and dont go on with the bullsh*t that small is beautiful- its not. Its pahtetic and shows us in a bad light. Where is the ambition and the intent to make a statement in Dublin architectularly? Yet again another 32 storey spectacular building rejected in Ballsbridge. Im sorry but we are being f**ked over of opportunity by stupid people in DCC.

Taunusanlage is pretty impressive alright

Just reckon it suited a City with no historical core better

Interestingly Frankfurt also has a proper transit system

KB have you been home at all recently?

Ireland ‘EU leader’ in waste – Greens
From ireland.com16:53Thursday, 17th May, 2007
Ireland is now “European leader” in creating waste, dumping it in landfills and exporting it abroad, the Green Party said today.

Publishing its 10 steps to clean up the environment, the party said it would, in government, open more recycling centres with work-friendly hours, offer recycling incentives and tackle illegal dumping.

Speaking in Blessington, Co Wicklow, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said the ‘Garden County’ had been “the dumping ground of Ireland” for too long.

“This Government has refused to tackle Ireland’s waste problem and latest waste figures show that that we are now European leaders in creating waste, dumping it in landfills, and exporting it abroad.

“While recycling rates have grown, much of that waste is transported out of the country to be dealt with elsewhere. We need to address the problem from home, reduce packaging and waste levels and ensure easier and better access to recycling facilities here,” Mr Sargent said.

The Green Party said it would tackle illegal dumping by strengthening the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Environmental Enforcement and bring in strict regulation of private waste operators.

Mr Sargent was visiting the Poulaphouca reservoir in Blessington, which provides drinking water to over a million homes in Dublin.

He said the reservoir has an unexcavated illegal dump just 25 yards from the water’s edge.

Green Party waste management spokeswoman councillor Deirdre de Burca said that from “overnight privatisation” of waste services in Wicklow in 2000, to the discovery of a large network of illegal dumps in 2001, the county had become synonymous with the kind of waste problems that also affect other parts of the country.

The Green Party’s 10 steps include the establishment of a new semi-State recycling company to ensure materials are recycled in Ireland rather than exported abroad.

It said it would introduce deposit refund schemes for drinking containers and also abolish flat rates on waste disposal and introduce a nationally system of weight-related charges for waste collection.

The party said it would also provide brown bins for organic waste to every household within the next term of Government.