{"id":633803,"date":"2026-08-12T20:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633803\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T20:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:34:10","slug":"vacant-space-over-oconnell-street-shop-to-become-artists-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633803\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacant space over O’Connell Street shop to become artists’ studios"},"content":{"rendered":"

A VACANT OVER-SHOP on Dublin\u2019s O\u2019Connell Street is to become a space for artists\u2019 studios through a new pilot programme spearheaded by Dublin City Council and real estate investor Mel Sutcliffe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Manfield Chambers building over the Asics footwear store on one of Dublin\u2019s most famous streets has been unused for a number of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asset Management firm Quanta Capital, which is in ownership of the building, has been in talks with Dublin City Council officials and Visual Artists Ireland to launch the one-year pilot scheme, which will see 21 studios offered as workspaces for artists in Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The spaces will be let out at a rent of between \u20ac200 and \u20ac300 a month<\/p>\n

Mel Sutcliffe, the founder of Quanta, told The Journal\u00a0that he is \u201cdelighted\u201d to see the pilot programme going ahead following the full restoration of the building, which his company have carried out over the last two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known this street my whole life, and I\u2019ve never accepted that its best days are behind it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019Connell Street is our main street. It deserves real ambition and everyone who cares about Dublin has a role to play in bringing it back to life,\u201d Sutcliffe added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The current Mainfield Chambers building was reconstructed in 1917<\/a> following the destruction of the Easter Rising, and its first recorded use was as a retail premises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sutcliffe said that Asics will continue trading on the ground floor of the building while the top four floors will be developed into spaces for artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upper floors of too many buildings on O\u2019Connell Street lie empty, and I would rather see ours filled with working artists, contributing their vision, than the building remaining empty above street level,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sutcliffe said that he is \u201cproud\u201d to be a part of the scheme, and that he sees it as an investment in \u201cthe future of our city\u201d as \u201cwe all benefit from having more artists in Dublin city centre\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that he hopes that the initiative will encourage other owners of properties that are vacant above shop level in Dublin city centre to consider alternative uses.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats councillor Ellen Doherty said that this pilot programme is part of the council\u2019s broader aim of developing vacant spaces and expanding artist\u2019s spaces in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an issue with vacancy above shop units across the city, so it\u2019s great to see projects like this. This should be the default approach to looking at how those spaces can be used rather than the exception,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doherty added that she believes that the initiative and others like it will be \u201cvital\u201d for re-energising O\u2019Connell Street and the North inner city at large.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Applications are now open on the Visual Artists Ireland\u2019s (VAI\u2019s) webpage<\/a> for artists to express an interest in taking part.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visual Arts Ireland note that the pilot will run for a year initially, and following a preliminary assessment, it will be part of an \u201copen call\u201d for a provider to take over the management of the business model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists in the pilot will be given priority about\u00a0continuing beyond the pilot period,\u201d VAI notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pilot programme will launch in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A VACANT OVER-SHOP on Dublin\u2019s O\u2019Connell Street is to become a space for artists\u2019 studios through a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[2038,5913,79,52,47653,784,18,19,17,5653],"class_list":["post-633803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-artists","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-business","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-centre","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-o"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117084452721251009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633803","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=633803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}