The residents association on Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, where property owners include financier Dermot Desmond, developer Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan, have objected to plans by Sean Dunne for a major new office scheme at AIB Bankcentre in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

The association said that the plan to construct six new office blocks of up to nine storeys was "completely inappropriate in this historic setting which the council should be preserving".

Global asset management group Aviva Investors has also objected to Dunne's plan.

It said the plan would be a "gross overdevelopment" of the site, had significant potential "to overlook and overshadow" its property, was of an "excessive height" and "would have an adverse visual impact on the surrounding land".

It also claimed that the proposed development "will create an unattractive working environment" and asked the council to refuse permission for the proposed development.

Dunne and Aviva, through Hibernian Life and Pensions, bought the older buildings at the Bankcentre and adjoining land for €377m in 2006.

The newer buildings are owned by the Serpentine Consortium, which is made up of private clients of AIB and Goodbody which bought the investment for nearly €370m in 2005. The Serpentine Consortium has also objected to Dunne's proposals on similar grounds to Aviva.

Other objectors include An Taisce, which said the proposed development would have a negative impact on the setting of the RDS. Separately, Dunne, through D4hotels.ie, lodged a planning application last week for an apartment development on the old Jurys Ballsbridge sites. Shops, medical facilities as well as restaurants and bars would be developed on the site.

The 12 buildings planned there would be mainly nine storeys high, rising to 15 storeys in places. If approved €300m will be spent on construction, with 450 full-time jobs created. The plan also includes a 135-bedroom seven-storey hotel which will front onto Pembroke Road.

When the Doyle Collection, then known as Jurys Doyle, sold the sites to Dunne, it kept a 10-year option to acquire the site and operate any new hotel developed on the land, subject to agreement in relation to specification, fit out, cost and terms of lease.