A 186-room hotel with an entire floor dedicated to its spa was in Galway’s Briarhill Business Park after plans were given the green light by Galway City Council.
The plans were submitted back in August 2020 for the massive structure be built in Site 4 of the business park, which is located near Galway Technology Park.
The plans were initially rejected back in October 2020, with the council citing reasons such as excessive height and inadequate parking facilities as the reason behind their decision.
Galway City Council then granted permission for the revised plans in March 2022 in a decision that would have seen the new hotel built beside the N6 on the outskirts of the city between Ballybrit and Doughishka.
The plans also included a bar/lounge area, meeting rooms, spa treatment rooms as well as a gym. The plans also included 153 car parking spaces, 28 bicycle spaces, and three set down spaces by the main entrance.
The spa would have been built with a swimming pool, a whirlpool, a sauna/steam room, male and female changing rooms, and storage rooms on the ground floor.
The approval was based on a total of 22 conditions, including addressing the lack of cycle access, installing electric car chargers and that the hotel gym be for guests only and not the general public.
An appeal was launched to Bórd Pleanála by locals in the wake of the March 2022 City Council conditional approval. An Bórd Pleanála then quashed the Council’s decision in January 2024, before another appeal, this time brought by the Parosi Developments Limited, sought to overturn this decision and allow the build.
However, the appeal was ultimately rejected by An Bórd Pleanála in January 2025, they reiterated their original concerns over the height, density and form of the eight-story hotel building.
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They stated that considering these, they consider the build would be “visually discordant” with the surrounding area, and decided that the ‘exceptional design quality’ test clause was not met.
An Bórd Pleanála noted that the scale of the build would not be in keeping with the outer suburban area of the site as well as out of place given the surrounding developments.
And in their latest rejection, they added that they disagree with an inspector’s report into the public transport service provision, their view is that the build would not be adequately serviced by public transport, and that reductions to car parking were not justified by access to public transport.
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