The genteel Georgian and Victorian environs of Dublin 4 . . . not merely a postal code but a state of mind too . . . are in the throes of reconstruction on an unprecedented scale which will fill Dublin City Council's coffers with hundreds of millions of euro in development levies. With the entire Poolbeg peninsula earmarked for development, incorporating a controversial incinerator, and Lansdowne Road rugby stadium getting a 350m facelift, a radical overhaul awaits that half of Dublin 4 that stretches from the sea at Poolbeg across to Leeson Street. In between are some of Ireland's most familiar social, sporting and diplomatic landmarks such as the RDS, Lansdowne Road, Herbert Park and the American embassy.

The twist in the story is that the two developers who are quickening pulses in boardrooms and residents' committees alike are denizens of D4 themselves. Bernard McNamara bought the old Chinese embassy on Ailesbury Road, demolished it and replaced it with a mini-palace, furnished with a glassceilinged swimming pool and a ballroom. Sean Dunne bought his home from Niall O'Farrell of the Blacktie dress hire chain and spent the next 18 months locked in a legal wrangle about the garden hedge. Fortunately for both developers, their homes are in the southern half of Dublin 4 and, therefore, safe from the reach of their own masterplans to re-design the heartland of Dublin South East's liberal, blue-stocking constituency.

Dublin's Knightsbridge Sean Dunne, who has expressed a desire to convert Ballsbridge into Dublin's Knightsbridge, sounded the starter's gun on the property developers' game of D4 monopoly when he shelled out 370m for the neighbouring Berkeley Court, Jurys and Towers hotels. The deal set the market value of development land in the area at a cool 50 million-an-acre.

That turned out to be something of a bargain-basement price as Dunne and Hibernian Life and Pensions snapped up AIB's national headquarters across the road from the RDS in a combined 378m leaseback agreement. Dunne's slice cost him 200m, the deal inflating the average price of a D4 acre to 55m.

With a new 370m bank HQ being built on an adjacent site by the Serpentine Consortium, a syndicate of private investors assembled by AIB, the original Bankcentre is expected to fall vacant late next year, lending itself to vast potential redevelopment. Surrounding householders are fretting that the green lawns fronting onto the main road will be gobbled up by cheekby-jowl apartment blocks.

Sean Dunne's company, Mountbrook Homes, already owns a terrace of period houses on Serpentine Road, giving him an unmatched foothold in this part of Ballsbridge, located two roads away from his own home on Shrewsbury Road. He denies a newspaper report last year that he was the mystery buyer of a neighbour's house, 'Walford', for 58m which a planning application sought to demolish and replace with three houses on the 1.8 acre site.

Whoever emerges as the purchaser of Ireland's most expensive house may bask in the kudos of pushing land values with a D4 address through the sky.

Now enter Bernard McNamara. Already building a gleaming small town of offices, apartments, shops, hotel, hospital and leisure centre on the Rock Road, a stone's throw beyond Ballsbridge, he upped the ante by buying the Burlington Hotel from Jurys Doyle for 288 million. The eventual price, depending on tax, could go as high as 318m.

News that he has also acquired the Allianz building beside the Burlington (1.5 acres for 100m) suggests that he has plans to reinvent the entire toney quarter leading to Donnybrook. That impression was reinforced when the residents of an apartment block at Burleigh Court, situated behind the Burlington, were recently offered 800,000 each and free alternative homes to vacate the premises. Most of the residents, who include the former EU Commissioner and planning tribunal witness Padraig Flynn, were said to be unimpressed with the carrot dangled by a Dublin quantity surveyor, Martin Waldron, who asserted that he was not acting on behalf of a developer.

Taking a big gamble Meanwhile, Dunne was not finished spending. In August last year, he paid 130m for the nine-storey office block, Hume House, beside Jurys Hotel and opposite the fortress-like American embassy. That acquisition brought the tab for his reported buying spree to 700m, not including professional fees, taxes, bank repayments and future construction costs.

Last November, he invited local politicians to a "very slick" presentation of his plans for the Jurys Hotel site, incorporating a 32-storey tower at its centre. At the presentation, the director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan, expounded on its cultural aspects while Dunne informed the TDs and councillors that his planning application would be submitted in March.

It has not appeared yet.

The success of any application will be contingent on the fortunes of the Ballsbridge Local Area Plan (LAP), a blueprint for development radiating in a one-kilometre circle from the eponymous bridge in D4. Its tentacles will stretch to Herbert Park, Merrion Cricket Club, Belvedere Rugby Club, the RDS and Lansdowne Road. The public consultation process for a draft LAP, proposing a high-rise building ceiling of eight-to-10 storeys, has been delayed by a legal hitch. It was originally to conclude in March but will not be completed until May.

All the while, bank interest rates are rising. "Dunne and McNamara are taking a big gamble, " says a fellow property developer not engaged in the D4 land extravaganza.

"They need to go up 20 storeys if they're going to get a return on their money, but the council isn't willing to consider that sort of planning for that area. They're banking on Ballsbridge being the Belgravia or the Knightsbridge of Dublin, being awfully posh in other words, so that punters will pay two or three million for a small apartment there, but it's no use if they can't build high-rise and high-density."

"The recent grant of planning permission for greater heights and densities in the form of a 120-metre tower at the Point Village development will drive developer demand for prime city centre sites, such as any Ballsbridge site, " says Dr Clare Eriksson, head of research with Jones Lang LaSalle. She adds that KPMG has already booked 27,870 square metres of office space in Bernard McNamara's redeveloped Burlington.

With 14 residents' associations in Dublin 4 . . . well-heeled, well-educated and well-connected . . . aversion to the development plans is mounting and is likely to become a primary constituency issue in the general election. One candidate, Fine Gael's Lucinda Creighton, has already pledged to vote against the LAP on the grounds that "it's property developer-led". She argues that rezoning provisions contained in the draft plan should be dealt with in a separate process. Other politicians fear that if the LAP fails, developers will enjoy a free-for-all, with the onus falling on residents to contest their planning applications one-by-one.

Two attempts to secure permission for skyscrapers have already proved unsuccessful. One proposal by Denis O'Brien to build a 26-storey tower in the centre of Donnybrook village was rejected. It was followed by a doomed application by Bernard McNamara to raise the height of the Tara Towers hotel, facing the sea on the Rock Road.

The fear among residents is that someone will inevitably break through the planning barrier. Dublin City Council urgently needs funding for infrastructural exigencies and it would stand to benefit handsomely from development levies. The council's income from one site in Poolbeg being developed by Liam Carroll's Fabrizia is estimated at 21m.

The much bigger adjoining Irish Glass Bottle site . . . about three times the size of Carroll's . . . was bought late last year for 412m by a consortium led by Bernard McNamara, including the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and investment dealer Derek Quinlan (another resident on Shrewsbury Road). A whole new suburb will eventually materialise on the Poolbeg peninsula.

Rugby connections Dunne and McNamara appear to have little in common, other than their own residential addresses and an insatiable appetite for the land around them. McNamara began his career as a rural builder and is described as "gruff but likeable." Dunne is a quantity surveyor, not shy about displaying the trappings of his success. The difference in style between the two men was captured with the latest news last week from the Lansdowne Road development. Bernard McNamara, it was announced, has secured the contract to demolish the existing structures on the home grounds of Lansdowne RFC. One of the prestigious rugby club's leading members happens to be one "handy forward in his day" . . . Sean Dunne.

SEAN DUNNE'S ACQUISITIONS
>> Jurys, Towers and Berkeley Court hotels: /370m
>> Hume House, Pembroke Road: /130m
>> AIB Bankcentre: /200m

BERNARD MCNAMARA'S ACQUISITIONS (separately and in partnership)
>> Irish Glass Bottle site, Poolbeg: /412m
>> Faculty Building, Shelbourne Road: /35.9m
>> Carrisbrook House: /47m
>> Allianz building: /100m
>> Burlington Hotel: /288m

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS/ACQUISITIONS
>> Redevelopment of Lansdowne Road rugby grounds: /350m
>> Purchase of Veterinary College, Shelbourne Road, by Ray Grehan, Glenkerrin Homes: /171m
>> Purchase of Franklin House, Pembroke Road, by David Daly, Albany Homes: /25m