Landlord appeals council refusal to scrap Newmarket market space

The owner of a Newmarket office building has appealed to An Bord Pleanála its request to change the use of a vacant space on its ground floor from market to, mostly, convenience retail.

If not, the landlord’s just going to have to leave the market space – and several adjacent artists’ studios in the same building – to lie vacant indefinitely, as they won’t be economically viable, its appeal said.

In December, Dublin City Council planners had ruled that the space at the bottom of The Eight Building should stay designated as market space.

The market space was fundamental to the planning permission and to the regeneration of Newmarket, the council decision said, and removing it would also go against the city development plan which recognises the importance of markets.

In its appeal to An Bord Pleanála, filed on 15 January, representatives for Patrizia Eight Building Limited laid out the company’s rebuttal.

They argue, among other things, that a change of use is supported by the development plan, which says that redevelopment in the area should deliver “active and animated frontages along the building edges”.

They said that agents had been trying to rent out the market space for six years, but there was a lack of interest from market operators because of the space’s size and configuration.

A market use isn’t viable so, if a change of use isn’t given, the space will just lie there, they said. “The space will remain vacant indefinitely, to the detriment of the established building, the Square and the local community.”

Darragh Moriarty, a local Labour councillor, who put in a submission to the planning application opposing the change of use, said his position hadn’t changed. “I don’t want a space lying vacant unnecessarily,” he said last week.

But the requirement for a market space has been factored into plans from its earlier stages, said Moriarty. “The plan was very clear at the start.”

The regeneration

Refusing the change-of-use application back in December, Dublin City Council had pointed to the vision laid out for the Liberties and Newmarket Square in the Strategic Development Regeneration Area 15 (SDRA15).

The objectives of SDRA15 – which is part of the city’s development plan – are “weighted towards regeneration that safeguards a strong sense of community identity, to improve and encourage the cultural and tourist offer of the area”, said the deputy city planner’s report.

The SDRA15 also talks about the need “to recognise the need for community uses and public spaces to complement the emerging development in recent decades”.

And, the need “to support the use of Newmarket Square for market trading and other beneficial public uses including as appropriate, works to enhance universal access, the pedestrian environment and public realm”.

Also “development should deliver active and animated frontages along the building edges” and “respond to the emerging public realm improvements at Newmarket Square and surrounds”, it says.

But those provisions were misapplied, argues the owner of The Eight Building in its appeal.

For a start, Dublin City Council had referred to the “removal” of an indoor market, which was wrong, they said. “There is no indoor market.”

“The indoor market is an aspiration in a planning permission that is not viable and there is no prospect in the medium to longer term that the permitted use will be implemented,” it says.

The only mention of a market in Newmarket in the SDRA15 principles is to support the use of the square itself for market trading and other public uses, the appeal says.

Using a space that fronts onto the square as an indoor market would be consistent with that policy, it says, “but in the absence of an active and successful market at Newmarket could not generate or sustain footfall sufficient to be viable”.

An indoor market space of 600sqm would depend on a successful outdoor market on the square, it says. There isn’t one and there aren’t any proposals for one, so it can’t be considered to contravene those guiding principles, the appeal says.

Instead, the change of use is consistent with the stated principles which say that redevelopment should deliver “active and animated frontages along the building edges”, says the appeal.

But the council does have a plan, albeit it stalled, to revamp Newmarket’s public realm to make it a better place for markets. And a team of experienced market operators say they’d love to operate markets there.

What about this one

Another objection from Dublin City Council planners was that a change of use would contravene Policy CCUV33 of the Dublin City Development Plan 2022–2028.

That covers “support for markets”.

It says the council “seeks to facilitate indoor and outdoor markets both in the city centre and throughout the city particularly where they support the existing retail offer and local produce/start up enterprise and the circular economy; and to realise their potential as a tourist attraction”.

That policy is of limited if any relevance, said the appeal from Patrizia Eight Building Limited.

The owner had presented evidence “of over 6 years of proactive marketing of the market and a professional opinion that there is no market for the use”, it says. “In those circumstances, refusing permission does not ‘facilitate’ a use.”

“The scale, configuration and location of the space cannot reasonably support established retail, enterprise and circular economic or serve as a tourist attraction,” it says.

In refusing the change-of-use application, a council planner had rejected the argument that future market spaces at Iveagh Market and the Guinness Quarter meant this space was no longer viable.

“It is understood that the Iveagh Market is some way from being operational as the building requires significant works to preserve its structure and safe use, whereas the subject site is ready for use,” the planner’s report said.

In its appeal, the owner said there has been significant progress on the nearby Iveagh Markets and the proposed Guiness Quarter food hall and market.

And that is a material change in circumstances, and so a small standalone indoor market space in a modern office building is not attractive or available for potential tenants and can not compete, it says.

Viable or not

Patrizia Eight Building Limited had asked to scrap the ground-floor market use before. That earlier application was refused by An Bord Pleanála in August 2023.

Planners had judged it premature as they thought opportunities for an indoor market hadn’t been fully explored, they said.

In its more recent application, Patrizia Eight Building Limited said it had run another direct-marketing campaign in April 2024. And, there had been “no to limited” interest in the property in the years since it was built.

It said that an article in Dublin Inquirer – which some residents included in submissions to the planning application – had “inaccurately reported” that some market operators hadn’t recently been approached about the space.

And, they hadn’t just consulted with food markets when marketing the space, the appeal says. “The applicant consulted with market operators in respect of a broad range of indoor market types to ensure that all opportunities were explored.”

Deirdre O’Sullivan, who runs the Green Door Market – which used to operate out of a now-demolished warehouse on the same site and has since moved to Bluebell – said again on Monday last week that she hadn’t spoken in recent times to the building’s owners.

But, looking at the detail, she did think the space was too small for them, she said.

However, among those who wrote to Dublin City Council to weigh in on Patrizia’s application to change the use of the market space to something else was Ian Dowling.

“I have been involved in the antique trade for over 20 years and was a regular visitor to the markets in Newmarket,” Dowling wrote. “Myself and some business acquaintances are very interested in speaking with the property owners about renting the building for market use.”

Dowling has been involved in flea markets since childhood and he has worked full-time in the trade for 15 years, he said by email on 4 February.

His business Rare Irish Stuff was the focus of the reality TV show Irish Pickers, he said.

His proposed team members are also in the markets business. Richie Harte and Delphine Velut are founders of the hugely successful Le Zeitgeist Bohemia Flea Market in Phibsboro, he said.

Harte also ran the Brocante Flea Market in Newmarket Square for many years, he says. “Brocante was a major destination for vintage collectors, antique lovers, and artisans, fostering a strong community of traders and buyers.”

Dowling says their idea is to look at Newmarket more broadly than just the indoor space in The Eight Building.

“The goal is to restore both an indoor and outdoor market in Newmarket, restoring the vibrant trading community that existed before redevelopment displaced long standing flea markets and traders,” he said.

He is a local resident, he said. “I’m deeply committed to bringing a market back to this space.”

“If this space isn’t reinstated as a market, the long standing market traditions of Newmarket Square could disappear forever,” he said.

Dowling hasn’t seen the Newmarket space or had any direct contact with the owner or their agent, he says. “But it would be very helpful if a series of ‘Open Days’ could be organised so the space could be accessible and open for viewings.”

What are they looking for? “A space that is affordable and suitable for hosting both an indoor and outdoor market, just as Newmarket had before and was promised to have once again prior to the square’s redevelopment,” said Dowling.

Patrizia hasn’t responded to queries sent to its press office on 31 January, asking what terms and conditions, and rent, it was asking for, for the space at Newmarket.

Dowling said also he wanted to hear more from the council on its commitment to enabling markets outside on the square.

In 2017, Dublin city councillors agreed a major revamp of Newmarket Square, with plans to pave the area, plant trees, add seating, put in DublinBikes, add a cafe – and put in electricity and water points for stall holders for outdoor markets.

That hasn’t happened yet. Last year, a council official said it had been held up internally by resource challenges in its Road Design section.

But the council has started to make smaller, interim changes, to the square – building out the footpaths.

That work was clearly underway on Friday. Metal fencing blocked dug-up strips of ground in front of The Eight Building and the Teelings Distillery, and over the other side of the square too.

Michael Pidgeon, the Green Party councillor, said he hasn’t looked into the specifics of the council authorising markets in the outdoor space at Newmarket Square, but that he thinks they would be open to that.

The difficulty is getting the full redesign of the square done and built through an understaffed council, he said, but it might be possible to use the space in the meantime even.

“I would have thought that if you can do it safely in the space, people would be happy enough for it,” he says.

Before the redevelopment of the buildings around the square began, markets were regularly held in the middle of Newmarket, with the existing infrastructure: a big open expanse of tarmac.

At the moment, the square is surrounded by student accommodation, a hotel, an apartment block, Teelings Distillery and The Eight Building office block – and there are no markets anymore.

The arts space

On the ground floor of The Eight Building beside the indoor market space, there is also a  courtyard and four artists’ studio spaces.

Patrizia’s change-of-use application said it wanted to set aside 100sqm of the indoor market space for a small exhibition/artist marketspace. That would provide opportunities for the artists in the studios, it said.

But the council planner reviewing that application also questioned that idea, and the status of the four artist studios.

The original indoor market was supposed to “work in synergy with the artist studios to yield communal and cultural benefits by continuing the tradition of markets in the Newmarket area”, the planner’s report says.

In its appeal, Patrizia said the proposal does seek to enhance and leverage the artists’ studios and the courtyard, by integrating those with an exhibition space and artist marketspace and the retail.

“The artists’ studios have not been allocated to date given the uncertainty regarding the future use of the permitted indoor market space and in respect of which the applicant considers that there is no prospect of ever using as a market space,” they said.

“The artists’ studios will be let at peppercorn rents,” says the application, “and overheads associated with insurance, security, servicing, etc, will be subsidised by the ground floor use.”

Without the change in use, the ground floor would remain vacant in perpetuity and the viability and use of the artists’ studios would be prejudiced, the application says.

Dowling, the antiques trader, says he thinks it is crucial that the council keeps its promises to protect markets at Newmarket. “A thriving market is crucial to preserving the history and character of Newmarket Square and the Liberties.”

An Bord Pleanála is due to decide Patrizia’s appeal by 20 May.