Council policy says big new developments must include arts spaces, but some worry they’ll be left to sit unused

On Thursday evening at 7pm, some 30 people – mostly artists and a handful of councillors, current and former – shuffled into the side entrance to the Complex Gallery and Studio on Arran Street East.

Labour Senator Marie Sherlock had called the meeting to discuss the need to protect and expand artist spaces in the city.

By 8.40pm, the conversation turned to a newish council policy, which requires a developer to give 5 percent of any development in excess of 10,000 square metres over to community or cultural use.

Yet, in the past, there has been a repeat issue with developers promising cultural spaces and then not making good on that, said the artist Louise Butler, to those gathered.

Take the Staycity Aparthotels on Francis Street where the Tivoli Theatre used to be, said Butler.

The theatre’s owner, Anthony Byrne got planning permission to develop the site in 2016 and, after Dublin City Council asked that he address the loss of the theatre – and Byrne promised a cultural and performance space.

Global asset manager DWS later purchased the site in 2019, and developed it in partnership with Staycity.

But since then, besides hosting two exhibitions in the last 10 months, the cultural space has largely remained a storage facility. “They’ve just left it as a concrete block,” Butler said.

That wasn’t a one-off, said panellist Vanessa Fielding, who founded the Complex.

“The same people have done the same thing here,” she said, gesturing behind her towards Little Mary Street, one street away.

The Staycity on Little Mary Street was built on the site formerly used by The Complex. The planning application for the site promised two artist studios.

Construction on the aparthotel was completed in July 2022, according to construction company BAM Ireland. But the arts studios have sat empty, with no indication as to when they will be rented out.

Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty says those cases predate the new policy in the city development plan, which came in later in 2022.

But, regardless, the council needs to apply pressure to make sure developers deliver on features that are stitched into their planning applications, said Moriarty, who chairs the council’s arts and culture committee.

A spokesperson for Staycity Group said that they have appointed a community and charity manager to oversee all community engagement across its properties, including both the Tivoli and Little Mary Street sites.

Two vacant studios

Until 2019, The Complex had been on that same spot on Little Mary Street that now hosts the Staycity aparthotel, Fielding said on Tuesday. “They terminated our lease then.”

As part of that termination, Staycity gave The Complex a contribution fee, she says. “It was a generous contribution.”

LMS Investment Designated Activity Company had applied to develop the aparthotel in December 2017.

Its proposal was to demolish the existing buildings for an aparthotel, with a retail unit and two artist studio spaces on the ground floor on Little Green Street.

Dublin City Council granted them planning permission on 24 January 2018, and construction was finished in July 2022.

But, on Friday evening, there was no sign that the auxiliary facilities were up and running.

Instead, the retail and artist studio spaces were largely empty, save for a few stacked boxes.

Their bare interiors are hidden by large sheets of frosted grey window film.

The rooms, which were to be developed as artist studios, resemble the grey, empty concrete interior of the performance space in Staycity’s Francis Street location.

A Google search result says that an artist named Angela Cuthill operates from within this site, at the corner of Little Mary and Little Green Street.

On Monday, Cuthill said that she relocated from there, before the Staycity aparthotel was built.

Tightening any loopholes

A spokesperson for Staycity, back in May 2023, said the aparthotel group had put together a proposal regarding the Tivoli space’s future use. “But it is currently subject to planning approval.”

Fourteen months later, however, that planning application has yet to be submitted to the council.

But the planned cultural space at Staycity Tivoli is currently being progressed, a spokesperson for the Staycity Group said on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Cantarini Limited –  a subsidiary of Staycity Ltd – on 3 April, submitted two separate applications to the council, requesting that they change the use of a pair of previously planned retail/non-retail units at the front of the property into a gastro bar and coffee house.

The council granted them permission to do so on 15 July.

Events at the Tivoli space have been scarce but  it is technically an arts space, and is referred to as the Tivoli Event Space.

Eve Woods, an artist, filed a complaint form to the council’s planning enforcement department after her exhibition that September, which alleged that Staycity had breached their planning conditions by not actually using the space for performances and exhibitions.

The council wrote back to her in November saying that the events space had been provided and that they have no role in either the management or programming of that event space.

As such, no enforcement action was warranted, the planning enforcement manager told Woods.

It is important that any loopholes around art space provision are closed, said Sherlock, the Labour senator.

“It has to be kitted out, as opposed to a shell. What is an arts space? Is it just putting a label over a door, or is it actually making sure it fits in with what artists need?” she said.

Plans for both of the Staycity complexes predate the existing development plan, which says that at least 5 percent of big sites should be given over to a cultural or community facility.

But the cases could still be instructive. How the new requirement plays out on the ground is a concern if the council doesn’t bring planning enforcement cases against those who don’t deliver, said Moriarty, the Labour councillor. “That’s the next phase of this discussion.”

The council has launched its Building Culture Toolkit to improve the delivery of cultural infrastructure as set out in the development plan, he says. “And the council is engaging more actively with private developers by saying this is what we need to do.”

Dublin City Council must also acknowledge that it cannot rely on these small allocations to address the cultural deficit in the city, he says. “We have to, also as a city council, be directly involved in funding these amenities.”