Former Carlton Cinema acquired by the State for MetroLink in €80 million deal

After laying vacant for decades and being the subject of lengthy legal battles, Hammerson has sold the Calrton Cinema site to the State to make way for the MetroLink

Comments News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 12:05, 08 Jul 2026 Updated 14:34, 08 Jul 2026 View Image Hammerson site on O'Connell Street, home of the former Carlton Cinema

The site of the Carlton Cinema on O'Connell Street has been sold to make way for the MetroLink.

Property company Hammerson has sold the Carlton site to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The sale has been welcomed by Dublin City Council as a significant milestone in actioning the 10 ‘Big Moves’ of the Taoiseach ’s Taskforce Report.

With the former Art Deco style cinema being vacant for the past three decades, Lord Mayor Daryl Barron said the sale signals their commitment to “revitalizing our empty spaces” and “breathing new life into our neighborhoods”. Closed since 1994, the cinema has stood as poster child for dereliction in the city and following complex court battles surrounding its redevelopment, the State has reportedly bought the site in an €80 million deal.

Head of Dublin City Council's Project Management Unit Robert Wyatt said TII’s purchase is about more than one single project and forms part of “a wider movement” to transform the city. “This development represents an opportunity to diversify the economic profile of the street and immediate environs, to increase the supply of high-quality residential housing on O’Connell St and critically, build a more vibrant urban environment,” he said.

“This is the ambitious, sustainable regeneration O’Connell St needs. Leading the delivery of the Taoiseach’s Taskforce, I look forward to working with our partners in TII to support development that delivers lasting benefits for our communities and help shape a more dynamic city centre for the future.”

The Moore Street Preservation Trust issued a statement describing the sale as an end to “Hammerson’s unacceptable and discredited plans for Moore Street”. Spokesperson James Connolly Heron said that under Hammerson’s previous Dublin Central project the site was “to be the gateway to a shopping mall extending into Moore Lane and Moore Street”.

“This was to include a break in the historic terrace 10-25 Moore Street, the last headquarters of the leaders of The 1916 Rising, to link O’Connell Street with the Ilac centre. We were told that this was essential for retail ‘footfall’,” he said. Mr Heron said the sale renders Hammerson’s plan “null and void” and welcomed that a State body has taken over the site. “But a piecemeal approach is not enough. The State must now acquire the related Moore Street/Moore Lane/Henry Place sites. Anything less insults the memory of those The 1916 National Monument purports to honour,” he said.

“Campaigners and 1916 relatives have been calling for State intervention to save this historic area from the developers' wrecking ball for years past. The campaign to save this last extant 1916 battlefield has now entered its 26th year.

“Had it not been for campaigners’ efforts this area described by the National Museum as 'the most important historic site in modern Irish history' would have been lost forever in the crass commercial interest of private property developers. Those now calling for its purchase by the State as representatives of the people cannot be ignored. The State are major players in the future development of this site as the guardians of the National Monument at 14 to 17 Moore Street, property holders of other buildings, its streets and laneways and now the planned O'Connell Street metro station.”

The Moore Street Preservation Trust has launched their own masterplan to transform the area “into a cultural historic quarter” honouring the men and women of the 1916 Easter Rising. “Under this plan we will walk in the footsteps of a golden generation of our people who made history in the very buildings where they made their last stand,” they stated.

“Our plan meets all of the recommendations of the Moore Street Advisory Group to successive Ministers, the objectives of the Dublin Development Plan and the recent Dublin City Task Force Report on the inner city and is in line with European guidelines and charters on the preservation of National Monuments and areas of historic importance.” General Secretary Owen Reidy of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions stated: “The Moore Street Preservation Trust has produced a credible and exciting plan. Congress is committing our full support to it.”

“Uachtaran Catherine Connolly stated on walking these streets and laneways, 'Moore Street is not just a collection of old buildings - it is the last living battlefield of 1916, a place that tells the story of courage, sacrifice and the struggle for Irish freedom. It belongs to the people of Ireland, not to developers or speculators.” While The Moore Street Preservation Trust welcomes the sale of the Carlton site, they stress “the State must now go on to complete the job so the 1916 Historic Cultural Quarter can become a reality”.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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