A rendering of the Crown Square in Galway. (Photo: Crown Square)

Ireland’s popular tourist city submits plans for the expansion of a proposed hotel project in Crown Square.

The Irish city of Galway is currently considering plans for the expansion of hotel provision within one of the city’s most exciting new mixed-use developments, Crown Square. The current proposals will be enlarged by adding additional floor space and more rooms. We find out more.

Big plans for Galway

The popular tourist city of Galway on the west coast of Ireland is on the up. The city is often cited as the fastest growing city in Europe, a title it has held for a number of decades, and Ireland’s booming tourism industry counts Galway as one of its biggest draws. Galway had the distinction of being named European Capital of Culture for 2020, but unfortunately, due to the coronavirus crisis that crippled the global hospitality, tourism and events industries in March of this year, all of the Galway 2020 programming has been cancelled.

However, not all is bleak on the horizon, as one of the city’s major developments submits a planning application to enlarge the hotel accommodation portion of its mixed-use proposal. Crown Square is a complex that has been many years in the making and will provide much needed hotel and commercial space to the city. As it stands, permission has been granted for five commercial office blocks, a hotel and residential apartments.

The new permission

The revised planning permission will seek to add another floor onto the proposed hotel, bringing it from five to six storeys in height (25.5m), and increasing the key count by five to a total of 180. The basement car parking provisions would be reduced by 24 spaces, but the lower level will benefit from a staff room, media room and storage facilities.

The project will also be home to 288 build to rent apartments, a much needed building type in Ireland, which has been suffering from a crippling housing crisis in recent years, which has seen rents skyrocket and homeless increase dramatically. Despite delays in the planning system because of COVID-19, with many local authorities operating in crisis mode, a decision on the revised planning submission is expected mid-summer.

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