By Brendan Carroll   

Plans for a 15-storey hotel in the Docks area have been submitted to Galway City Council – less than a year after An Bord Pleanála refused to give the go-ahead for an 11-storey hotel on the same site.

The proposed hotel would be built on a ‘brownfield’ site on the corner of Lough Atalia and Bóthar na Long, directly across the road from the Harbour Hotel. The site was historically used for coal storage and is surrounded on three sides by high walls.

Summix BNM Developments Limited, a Dublin-registered development company which operates in the UK and Ireland, last week applied to Galway City Council for permission to build a 189-bedroom hotel over 15 storeys on the site of less than a quarter of a hectare.

An existing vacant industrial structure and the high boundary walls around the coalyard site would be demolished to make way for the 7,500 square metre building. The plans envisage 14 bedrooms on most of the floors, with food and beverage areas on the ground floor.

A key factor in An Bord Pleanála rejecting an appeal to overturn Galway City Council’s refusal of planning permission for the previous proposal was the proximity of the site to the historic Forthill Cemetery, which dates back to the 1500s.

The same company had applied in September 2020 for permission from the council to build an 186-bedroom hotel over 11 storeys, with a rooftop bar. Following the refusal of permission the following May, it lodged an appeal with the planning appeals board against the decision.

An Bord Pleanála’s inspector made a recommendation that the development be given the go-ahead, suggesting in his report that it “would not seriously injure the visual amenities of the area or of adjoining property and would be acceptable in terms of impact on architectural, archaeological and cultural heritage of the area”.

However, the authority’s board went against that recommendation and refused to overturn Galway City Council’s decision not to grant planning permission, in a decision published in June 2023.