Dublin City Council has raised “serious concerns” over plans for the demolition and renovation of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre.

Plans for a €100 million redevelopment of the city centre building were revealed in early January.

The proposal would give the historic façade a major facelift, replacing the glass and ornate ironwork with a new modern design.

A split-screen showing St Stephen’s green shopping Centre and a proposal for its renovation. Image: DCC Planning

The plans would also add two stories to the building, increasing the floor space by just short of 21,500 sq mtrs.

The plan was put forward by Davy entity, DTDL Ltd, which acquired the parts of the property it did not already own in 2019.

In a lengthy further information request, Dublin City Council has warned that the company had failed to justify the level of demolition and alteration proposed and warned that the Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment (AHIA) it submitted “does not adequately address the significance of this building”.

A split-screen showing St Stephen’s green shopping Centre and a proposal for its renovation. Image: DCC Planning

The council said a “building of exceptional design quality” is required given the centre’s prominent location.

Among other things, it said plans for the eastern façade of the building need to be changed to “avoid a generic approach to the design and cater for a level of sophistication which allows for a more individualistic building”.

Meanwhile, it noted that the northern elevation “requires greater punctuation at upper floor levels to avoid a monolithic façade along South King Street”.

A split-screen showing St Stephen’s green shopping Centre and a proposal for its renovation. Image: DCC Planning

The council also outlined serious concerns about the height, scale and mass of the plans.

It said the views of the building rising well above the parapet line of the buildings on Grafton Street are of particular concern.

DTDL has six months to respond to the request for further information.

The company has previously described the Shopping Centre as “outdated” and “underperforming”.