Dublin City Council planners have refused a planning application seeking permission to convert an indoor market space on Newmarket to instead be used as a convenience store.
Patrizia Eight Building Limited applied in October for permission to drop the market requirement, citing – among other things – a lack of interest from operators because of its size and configuration.
The site had been home – before the shiny office building that is there today – to a warehouse with the Green Door Market, and some Sunday markets like the bustling Dublin Flea.
Local residents and councillors wrote to the council to object to the recent proposed change of use, arguing that it would further undermine the markets character of the area and taking issue with the justifications.
On 10 December, councillor planners ruled that the space should stay designated as a marketplace. The indoor market space was a “fundamental element” of the original planning permission and the Newmarket regeneration, says the deputy city planner’s order.
For and against
In its application in October, Patrizia had outlined how it wanted to use the space for “top-up” shopping, with high-quality food for people to eat on the go.
It wanted to have a small off-licence at the back of the shop, too. Customers could also use a small shared courtyard, the application says.
Justifying the change, Patrizia’s application said there had been limited interest in the space over the previous five years of trying to fill it.
Food hall operators need a much bigger area, they said, pointing to the Iveagh Markets, the Guinness Quarter, and the Smithfield Fruit and Veg market as more suitable and viable.
The change of use would also make it easier to fill any of the vacant office space on the upper floors of the building, the application said.
But the Deputy Planning Officer’s report said that that the importance of markets for the area was recognised in several key policy documents, including the current city development plan.
The objectives of “Strategic Development Regeneration Area 15”, which covers The Liberties and Newmarket are also “weighted towards regeneration that safeguards a strong sense of community identity, to improve and encourage the cultural and tourist offer of the area”, says the report.
Dublin City Council’s own plans for Newmarket Square are predicated on synergies with the ground-floor uses of the buildings around it, says the report.
Funding invested in this by the council “also reflects the value placed upon the continuation of community and cultural uses in Newmarket”, says the report.
The planner wrote that, while a report about efforts to lease the building that went in with the application said that a food market can’t be viable in the space, it doesn’t have to specifically be a food market.
The Iveagh Market and the proposed market at the Guiness Quarter can’t be assumed to be adequate replacements either, says the planner’s report.
“It is understood that the Iveagh Market is some way from being operational as the building requires significant works to preserve its structure and safe
use, whereas the subject site is ready for use,” says the report.
For artists
On the ground floor of The Eight Building beside the indoor market space, there is also an external courtyard and four artists’ studio spaces.
Patrizia’s application said that it wanted to set aside 100sqm of that indoor market space still for a small exhibition/artist marketspace. That would provide synergy and opportunities for the artists in the studios, it said.
But the planner also questioned that idea, and the status of the four artist studios.
The original indoor market was supposed to “work in synergy with the artist studios to yield communal and cultural benefits by continuing the tradition of markets in the Newmarket area”, the planner’s report says.
But “It is unclear whether the studios within the site are occupied and the supporting information is silent on both their status and the extent to which they have been marketed or operators have been actively sought,” it says.
The planner pointed to a council guide on cultural infrastructure for developers, to help them to deliver culture and community spaces.
“It appears that the applicant has not engaged with this resource, therefore it is concluded from the information submitted, that the opportunities for an indoor market and synergies with the artists’ studios have not been recognised or explored,” the planner’s report says.
