An Bord Pleanala has granted planning permission to a company controlled by the owner of QPR, Tony Fernandez, to demolish the former Ormond Hotel property on Dublin’s Ormond Quay close to Capel Street Bridge and to replace it with a new 121 bedroom, five-storey hotel.

This is a considerable reduction in scale to the original plans submitted to Dublin City Council three years ago for a 170 bedroom hotel.

The development, which overlooks the Liffey, will knock down the dilapidated property and develop a €20m modern hotel on the site.

It is slated to open its doors to the public in 2019 and will create, 'in the region of 100 new jobs' in Dublin 1. That is up from a provisional headcount of 80 reported last year.

The Avroko design team which is behind One Central Park Hotel in Manhattan and The Modern Pantry in London will deck-out its interiors.

The Dublin building near Capel Street is featured in the 'Sirens' episode of James Joyce's Ulysses.

There had been opposition to the plans from both the 'Save Joycean Dublin Committee' and local residents who are concerned about the size of the new hotel, which delayed the project.

None of the original building's structures which featured in Ulysses are standing today, as they were destroyed during renovations in the 1970s.

The project promises to "respect and restore the site incorporating it’s Joycean heritage," with "a modern yet sensitive makeover."

"Our intention is to market Ireland and this hotel heavily to Asian tourists and millennial visitors to Dublin," CEO Mark Lankester said in March.

It was reported yesterday that Tony Fernandez has sold his 20% shareholding in another Irish business, the aircraft repair and maintenance firm, Dublin Aerospace, to its chief executive, Conor McCarthy.