Property developer Mick Bailey to lodge plans for 530 apartments in Swords
Gordon Deegan
Mick Bailey’s Bovale Developments is to lodge plans in the coming days for a 530-unit residential unit scheme in Swords, Co Dublin.
The property developer resumed full control of his heavily indebted Bovale empire earlier this year after a decade-long hiatus in which he was disqualified as company director for seven years.
In the large-scale residential development (LRD) plans to be lodged with Fingal County Council, Bovale is to seek planning permission for 530 apartments and one creche across four apartment blocks at Barrysparks and Crowscastle, Swords.
Three of the four apartment blocks in the 'Barrysparks LRD' will rise to nine storeys, with the fourth rising to seven storeys.
The scheme is made up of 244 one-bed apartments, 235 two-bed apartments and 51 three-bed apartments and will have a gross floor area of 49,210sq m.
The three nine-storey apartment blocks will each accommodate 210 apartments, 138 apartments and 108 apartments, while the seven-storey scheme will comprise 74 apartments.
The statutory planning notice states that Bovale is seeking a 10-year planning permission for the site, which is bounded by Lakeshore Drive, Drynam Road and the Holywell Distributor Road to the south.
The site benefits from being close to Dublin Airport and having quick access to the national road network on the M50 and the M1.
Planning records show that it is Bovale’s first planning application with Fingal County Council in seven years – the firm’s last planning application was for 29 homes at Holywell, Swords, in June 2018.
The new scheme follows on from Bovale adding to its financial firepower after it realised €44.6 million in February from the sale of a large land bank near the M50 motorway.
The 91.4-acre site, known as the Dublin Central Logistics Park, was sold to three buyers, among them the Central Bank of Ireland.
Bovale has long had a landholding at Barrysparks and as far as 2016 was making a submission to Fingal County Council concerning the zoning of its then 49.5 acre landholding there.
The application comes 10 months after Mick Bailey – who turns 72 next month – returned as a director to Bovale Developments.
Mr Bailey along with his brother Tom were disqualified from acting as company directors in 2013 by the High Court after finding they were guilty of “particularly serious” misconduct and fraud.
The Bailey brothers, who set up Bovale Developments, figured centrally in the 1990s planning tribunal although adverse findings against them were later removed from the tribunal's report.
Bovale Developments is not required to file annual accounts due to its unlimited status, though its auditor’s report for 2023 stated that the group recorded a loss that year.
