Published on: 10-May-2010
Parnell's have been given the green light by An Bord Pleanala to proceed with their €30m development in Coolock.
The news has been warmly welcomed by club officials who are planning to start work on the multi-million euro project in August.
"We are absolutely delighted," Parnell's chairman Frank Gleeson said in the Evening Herald.
"It's a good, speedy decision from An Bord Pleanála and it also gives us the green light to proceed now - at a time when jobs and the development of sports facilities would be very welcome in the local area."
Parnell's state-of-the-art facilities will incorporate a new clubhouse and changing rooms; a gym; a function room and bar; a purpose-built sports hall; a hurling wall; two full-sized floodlit pitches (one grass and one all-weather); as well as a three-quarter length, all-weather floodlit pitch for juveniles.
The overall project will be developed on a 28-acre site at Chanel College, and involves a joint venture between the Marist Fathers and Parnells.
The Marist Fathers have plans to develop 17 houses and 53 apartments, while the GAA development will take place on a 12-acre site and cost around EUR13 million.
Planning permission had already been granted at local authority level before Parnells received the good news from An Bord Pleanála on Friday.
"We are in a position now where we can go out to tender fairly quickly, probably by the end of June, and we hope to start construction by the end of August. The target would be 12 months for phase one (the GAA element)," Gleeson added.