Update issued over new eight storey Galway city hotel plans
The planned hotel has been in the pipeline for a few years now
A new eight-storey Galway city hotel is going through the planning motions once again.
It has been six years since the 186 bedroom hotel at Briarhill Business Park was first proposed by Parosi Developments.
Galway City Council approved the original proposal back in 2020 but it then received strong opposition from locals leading to its eventual refusal years later.
The hotel - which includes spa facilities, a gym, swimming pool, sauna and nearly 200 car, bicycle and electric vehicle spaces - was pushed back by the High Court in early 2026 again to the decision makers at An Coimisiún Pleanála with a final decision set for October.
The High Court decision at the time said: “There is a five-storey hotel across the road and a seven-storey permitted but unbuilt development in the vicinity.
“The inspector found there to be a regular bus service in this area every 10-20 minutes, and nobody has shown that to be incorrect as a matter of fact.”
It continued: “The receiving environment is not a sensitive location and the development site is effectively a vacant site in an industrial estate area and one of the only development opportunities in this particular locality, all as found by the inspector again there is no contradiction of this.
“City policy supports development along transport corridors and, while supporting maintenance of prevalling heights and setting out car parking standards, allows departures on a case-by-case basis and on demonstration of alternative transport options respectively.
“National policy also supports departure from such standards in appropriate cases.”
It concluded by saying: “The council (subject to conditions) and the inspector (on multiple occasions) found this development to be an acceptable proposal.
“The commission by contrast refused permission. It is settled law that there is a need for reasons for administrative decisions, and that this is particularly so where a planning decision-taker disagrees with a reasoned decision or proposed decision made earlier in the process by an institutional actor such as a planning authority or inspector.
“This case concerns the fact-specific application of these established legal principles.”