London’s famous Ivy restaurant approved for Dublin expansion
The owners of famous London restaurant The Ivy have been given the green light to open in Dublin.
It will be the first of the Ivy Collection’s restaurants to be located outside of the UK. The company has signed a 20-year lease — with no break clause — with developer Green Reit for No 1 Molesworth Street, which is currently under construction, on the corner with Dawson Street, as a mixed-use six-storey office and commercial building.
“The unit has been selected due to its location in a tourist, office and retail destination, its size over two levels, and its setting in a prestigious office building,” said the Ivy Collection’s executive property director George Jones.
In giving the Ivy Brasserie the go-ahead, An Bord Pleanála has back-tracked on earlier demands that a large portion of the ground floor of the development be dedicated to retail space.
This direction prompted planning consultants, John Spain and Associates to warn that “a reduction in the ground floor dining area would severely impact upon the viability of The Ivy at this location.”
Mr Spain said: “The suggested reduction in ground floor restaurant space would prejudice the operational viability of The Ivy at this location and the proposal could not proceed. The level of ground floor restaurant space proposed is crucial.”
The owners of The Ivy also intervened, saying that a refusal of the application “will cause us to suffer significant cost and also put up to 180 new jobs in jeopardy”.
