State buys O'Connell Street site for €80m to unblock MetroLink after 32-year vacancy

The acquisition

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) announced on Wednesday that it has bought the Carlton Cinema site and adjacent vacant lots on O'Connell Street from UK developer Hammerson for €80 million. The 5.5-acre plot, known as Dublin Central, had been earmarked for a €500 million shopping centre, office and residential scheme that stalled amid legal challenges. TII chief executive Lorcan O'Connor said the purchase would allow the state to redevelop the area and make MetroLink construction easier.

The acquisition of this important site will allow us to redevelop this important area for the benefit of the Irish people, while also bringing benefits that will make the construction of MetroLink easier.

A site frozen in time

The Carlton Cinema closed in October 1994 and the site has remained vacant ever since, becoming a symbol of dereliction in the city centre. Hammerson, which co-owns Dundrum Town Centre, had owned the land for about a decade and secured planning permission from Dublin City Council in 2022. That decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and then to the High Court by the Moore Street Preservation Trust, a group involving relatives of 1916 Rising participants, over concerns about the impact on a national monument at 14–17 Moore Street. The court proceedings have been ongoing for almost two years.

MetroLink station and masterplan

The MetroLink route, approved last September, will run from Swords to Charlemont via Dublin Airport and includes an underground station beneath the former cinema. TII said the station will integrate with Luas and bus services. With the site now in public ownership, TII plans to work with the Dublin City Centre Taskforce and the Land Development Agency on a masterplan for the capital's main street.

This will be the first chance for many to understand how MetroLink will allow us to improve the public realm and really re-imagine what our city looks like.

Legal and financial backdrop

The Hammerson scheme had been blocked by objections centred on the 1916 National Monument building. The state's intervention sidesteps that impasse. Separately, MetroLink's interim programme director Michael Flynn said the project has spent over €350 million to date and submitted updated costs to government that are expected to exceed the €7–12 billion range outlined five years ago. A government decision on the project is expected in the coming weeks.

A push for risk-taking

The acquisition coincides with a broader government push, championed by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, to encourage public bodies to accept more risk in infrastructure decisions. Departments will be required to specify the level of risk they are prepared to accept, a move aimed at overcoming the caution that has slowed big projects.