{"id":574737,"date":"2026-07-08T08:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/574737\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:11:08","slug":"state-buys-oconnell-street-site-from-uk-property-group-for-metrolink-for-e80m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/574737\/","title":{"rendered":"State buys O\u2019Connell Street site from UK property group for MetroLink for \u20ac80m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The O\u2019Connell Street development site known as Dublin Central has been bought by the State from UK property group Hammerson in a surprise move to facilitate the development of MetroLink.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hammerson announced on Wednesday it had sold non-core assets, including multiple holdings in central Dublin, valued at \u00a369m (\u20ac80.7m), to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII)<\/a>, the State transport developer. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe central Dublin holdings were sold to Transport Infrastructure Ireland to unlock key infrastructure for the city\u2019s planned Metrolink train system,\u201d it said. \u201cHammerson has retained certain holdings in Dublin which provide strategic options across development, partnerships and future value realisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5.5 acre plot, formerly known as the Carlton site, which runs west from O\u2019Connell Street to Moore Street, and north from Henry Street to Parnell Street, was to have been developed as a shopping centre by Hammerson, which has owned the land for a decade.<\/p>\n

However, the \u20ac500 million scheme for the site, parts of which have been vacant and derelict since the 1970s, has been stalled for several years by legal challenges.<\/p>\n

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII),<\/a> said it has acquired the site to \u201csupport MetroLink construction works and future development planning\u201d.<\/p>\n

The planning permission for MetroLink, which will run from Swords in north Dublin, to Charlemont, close to Ranelagh<\/a> in south Dublin and will serve Dublin Airport, included an underground station in O\u2019Connell Street underneath the former Carlton cinema.<\/p>\n

This station was to have been built with the agreement of Hammerson, according to TII\u2019s planning application for MetroLink which was approved last September. The Hammerson shopping centre, office and residential scheme was to have been developed above.<\/p>\n

However, while Hammerson secured planning permission for its development from Dublin City Council in 2022, the decision was appealed to An Bord Plean\u00e1la. The board upheld the council\u2019s decision, but this was further appealed to the High Court by the Moore Street Preservation Trust, a group involving a number relatives of those involved in the 1916 Rising, and Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Department of Transport \u2018wants to avoid\u2019 MetroLink costs spiralling like children\u2019s hospitalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

These court proceedings have been ongoing for almost two years.<\/p>\n

TII chief executive Lorcan O\u2019Connor on Wednesday said the State\u2019s acquisition of the site would \u201callow 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

He thanked Hammerson for working \u201cconstructively with the State to make this agreement possible\u201d and said TII would be working with the new Dublin Task Force, which has a mandate to revitalise the north inner city, and the Land Development Agency (LDA) to develop the overall site.<\/p>\n

It is not yet known if TII and the other State agencies will develop the site in line with the Hammerson scheme or will seek fresh planning permission for a new development.<\/p>\n

Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien said the site\u2019s acquisition \u201cwill be the first chance for many to understand how MetroLink will allow us to improve the public realm and really reimagine what our city looks like\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien is due to seek approval from Cabinet of updated MetroLink costs by the end of this month to allow TII to go tender for the construction of the 19km line.<\/p>\n

The last cost estimates for the line, issued by TII when it last submitted its business case for the project to the then government in 2022, ranged from \u20ac7.16 billion to \u20ac12.25 billion. It is expected the new estimate will be in the region of \u20ac16 billion to \u20ac18 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers welcomed the acquisition of the site and said it was a sign the Government was \u201cwilling to get on with trying to build Metrolink.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chambers told RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Morning Ireland programme that the infrastructure project would \u201cprobably take about 10 years to build,\u201d and he expected early work to begin in 2028 with the project being finished in the mid 2030s. Chambers said that \u201cfinalised coatings\u201d had not been made available to him yet. <\/p>\n

Asked if the Government would set an upper limit for the costs of the project, Chambers said: \u201cWell, that\u2019s the informed decision Government will have to make when we\u2019ve received the final business case and the cost range, and when that\u2019s concluded, we\u2019ll be able to set out the detail of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The O\u2019Connell Street development site known as Dublin Central has been bought by the State from UK property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,4852,5,7,8,53919],"class_list":["post-574737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-metrolink","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-transport-infrastructure-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116883350535934694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}