Not So Desperate For Development

Before the Irish economy collapsed, Bono and The Edge thought they might invest in some real estate in Dublin. Everyone was doing it back in 2007, tearing down old and stodgy buildings so that fresh, new statements could be made.

U2's version of the Clarence Hotel

So they bought the stodgy old Clarence Hotel, perched on the edge of the Liffey, and found Norman Foster, an architect who was all about fresh new statements.

That thing on the roof was called a 'skycatcher', which might have been intended to work as a Native American dream catcher. Wouldn't want guests of the revamped Clarence Hotel to have nightmares, now, would we? Whether or not residents of Dublin would have liked a flying saucer-looking thing hovering over the Liffey is a different matter. They might have had nightmares about that saucer slipping into the river and creating a tsunami that would wipe out the Guinness brewery.

At any rate, the Dublin City Council granted approval because they were all about property development back in 2007, and it was U2 doing the development and how can you say no to Bono? The man does such good things for the downtrodden.

Then the real estate market took a bad turn and the development never happened. Knowing that what went down would go up, the Irish band mates waited, keeping the planning permission active through the years in anticipation of better times. After 2009, with nothing done, the council thought better of the building's height---and probably the whole flying saucer on the roof concept--and pulled their earlier approval.

The council determined that the hotel was nothing more than another commercial development, which could not exceed seven storeys, and U2 wanted to go to eight.

Bono and The Edge have now challenged that ruling, hoping to go ahead with their development now that things aren't as dismal as they once were. Their legal counsel says that the hotel is not just another commercial structure like some dowdy office building, and therefore the refusal was made in error. A judge has seen the merits in the argument, and the Clarence Hotel revamping group can now go ahead and challenge the ruling of the Dublin City Council.

A flying saucer may yet land on the banks of the Liffey.

Assuming the money is right and the prospects for hotel occupancy are sound.