Developer seeks permission for backpackers' hostel in Limerick

DEVELOPERS are planning to construct a backpackers’ hostel in the heart of Limerick’s Georgian Quarter.

A four-storey office building at Glentworth Street in the city centre has been earmarked for conversion into the facility.

If it goes ahead, it would mean that for the first time in more than 20 years, Limerick will have a full-time hostel for budget-conscious tourists visiting the region.

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Usman Ahmed Kakar is seeking permission from Limerick City and County Council to convert the former offices into a hostel at its basement, ground floor, first-floor, second-floor and third-floor levels.

This will see the rooms changed into dormitory bedrooms.

Below: the offices in Glentworth Street which are primed for hostel accommodation

Necessary modifications will be made at all levels, while a roof light will also be introduced.

A mews building to the rear of the main building at 11, Glentworth Street is also in line for an upgrade, the planning application shows.

Here, a new first floor will be introduced, with a disability access bathroom and shower-room at ground floor level, with an en-suite bedroom at first floor level.

Two windows which are currently bricked up will be reinstated.

It is unclear how many beds will be provided in the proposed development.

But the plans show the basement level will see one dormitory bedroom, three on the ground floor, plus the same number on the first and third floors.

Two bedrooms are projected for the second floor.

Agents representing the developer pointed out the building planned for the hostel is a former Georgian townhouse.

Built around 1840, it is a protected structure.

It long had a commercial premises on its ground-floor levels with offices and residential on the upper floors.

For 40 to 50 years, the agent stated, it was the office of well-known local legal firm Punch and Co.

“The interior of the building has been heavily altered in recent times with the removal of the original features. These new proposals are limited in scope and seek to refine the existing fabric of the building with carefully chosen modern details in order to upgrade the quality and character of the property,” agents added.

Mr Kakar, the developer, did not wish to comment when contacted by the Limerick Live.

A decision on the planning application is scheduled to be made on or before Monday, October 13.

There have been several planning applications for youth hostels in the last number of years.

Flan Costello re-ignited plans to convert the now-disused Milk Market Bar in Mungret Street in 2023, into youth hostel accommodation.

He received permission for the development in December that year.

Previously, he had similar applications approved in both 2014 and 2018.

Back in 2009, Hirar Properties secured permission from the old City Council to develop a four-floor, 85-bed backpackers’ hostel at the site of the former Globe Lapdancing club in Cecil Street.

It has been 2003 since Limerick last had a youth hostel.

In that year, An Oige in Pery Square ceased trading.

Limerick stands alone among Ireland’s major cities in terms of not having backpacker hostel accommodation.