Crematorium, cemetery planned for Kilternan - Crematorium.eu News about crematoria in Europe - www.crematorium.eu informs about crematoria in Europe- Krematorium.eu- crematorio.eu, find a crematorium

Park Developments, the property firm owned by Michael Cotter, plans to spend €3.5million building a crematorium and graveyard on a ten-acre site in Kilternan, south Dublin.

The firm is looking for permission to build a two-storey scheme that would include a chapel with seating for 150 people, two prayer rooms and a ‘‘committal’’ room with two cremators.

The development at Ballycorus Road would also include a traditional graveyard with almost 1,700 places and three metre-high crematorium walls to store ashes.

A spokesman for Park said that it hoped it would get planning approval, as there was a need for a crematorium and additional graveyard places in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown council area.

He said the firm would go ahead with the development immediately if permission were granted, creating 80 construction jobs.

The scheme would take about a year to complete and would employ up to 20 people when it was open.

Park worked with a large Irish undertaking firm and a British crematorium operator on its plan, and the Park spokesman said it would be the ‘‘pre-eminent facility of its kind in the country’’, with extensive landscaping and a garden reflection area.

The site has been owned by Park for a number of years, but was not earmarked for any other development by the firm in the past.

The crematorium has been under development for around six months.

It is a joint venture between Park, which was founded by Cotter over 40 years ago, and Tim Crowley, a close associate of Cotter.

Park’s projects include the Mount St Anne’s and Gallops residential developments in south Dublin, The Park retail scheme at Carrickmines, Northern Cross Business Park and the development of Greystones Harbour.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has taken over Park’s loans from the Irish banks, but the firm said it believed Nama would support its business plan and continue its borrowing arrangements. P ark also has loans from non-Nama banks.

There are four crematoria in the country.

Three are in Dublin, at Glasnevin Cemetery, Harold’s Cross and Newland’s Cross.

In recent years, one was developed at the Island in Ringaskiddy, Cork by businessman Louis Ronan.