Vacancy Watch: Why isn't the site of the former Ormond Hotel on the derelict sites register?

From the 1840s until 2018, the Ormond Hotel stood on the north quays in the city centre. With plans in the works to redevelop it, the hotel was demolished that year.

Ever since, the site has sat empty, a missing tooth in the streetscape along Ormond Quay.

It was, for years, partially hidden behind the hoarding hosting the "Do Not Remove" mural, until the council removed it last year and replaced it with an NFL mural.

The site is subject to the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT), says a council spokesperson. That tax of 3 percent of a site's market value per year is meant to push owners of such properties to develop them.

But it hasn't been put on the derelict sites register, a list of properties that, visually, bring a neighbourhood down – and which carries a higher 7 percent annual tax.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner asked the council recently why the site hadn't been put on that register, too.

It's "in the direct eyeline of the chief executive’s office”, Horner said by phone on Wednesday, since the site is across the Liffey from the council's Wood Quay headquarters. “No one in DCC seems to have any curiosity.”

This week, a council spokesperson said it is preparing notices of its intention to add the site to the derelict sites register: “Section 8(2) Notices are being prepared this week to serve on the owners and on the physical site.”

"Communication with owners led the Council to believe that the intention was to implement the planning permission to develop the site and bring it back into active use," the spokesperson said.

"The Council has given considerable time and engagement with the owners, however, given the lack of progress, the site will now be entered onto the Derelict Sites Register and will be removed from the RZLT maps with derelict sites levy being applicable from 2027," she said.

Plans, plans, plans

In 2014 Dublin City Council refused a planning application from Monteco Holdings to redevelop the site with a new, six-storey hotel.

“Its monolithic design and unsympathetic proportions, would seriously injure the surviving grain, rhythm and character of Ormond Quay Upper,” said council planners. 

But in 2017, An Bord Pleanála gave the go-ahead to different designs for a five-storey, 121-bedroom hotel on the Ormond Hotel site, as well as some adjacent buildings.

The Ormond Hotel featured in the Sirens episode of James Joyce's Ulysses.

The James Joyce Centre requested the facade be retained when the old hotel was demolished, but that didn't happen.

However, to retain some of the Joycean heritage, the owners committed to retain the name, the Ormond Hotel, and to erect a plaque referring to the links to Ulysses, according to planning records. 

In 2022 and again in 2024, Dublin City Council granted extensions to the planning permission, which now runs until next year, 2027. 

Who owns it?

A council official said in response to Horner’s question that the site was tied up in legal proceedings, and “was never added to the [derelict sites] register due to the complicated nature of the legal case”. 

It's unclear if it is the same case that the spokesperson is talking about, but Urban Entertainment Ltd, the operator of a restaurant in a neighbouring building, did take Monteco Holdings to the High Court.

It was seeking, among other things, damages for what it said was disruption to its business from the demolition works. That case was last listed in the Court of Appeal, with an order issued in June 2021.

Legal proceedings aside, the council also has to make a good effort to contact the owner of a site before putting it on the derelict sites register.

The Dublin City Council spokesperson says the council has reason to believe the site may have been sold recently.

“A ‘For Sale’ sign has been present on the site, and local knowledge indicated a change of ownership may have taken place,” she said. 

Previous notices, sent by registered post, were returned to the council, the spokesperson said, so they requested an updated title check.

“The legislation requires the Council to take all reasonable steps to identify the owner and so if we are unsuccessful in this regard other avenues will be considered,” she said. 

The owner or occupier has a right to make representations before the site is added to the register, she said. The council is working on the statutory notices this week, she said. 

Monteco Holdings is still listed as the owner on the land registry records, but those records usually aren’t updated immediately when properties are sold. 

Emails sent to Monteco Holdings since 30 June bounced back and phone calls to their head office in Toronto this week were not answered. 

Who is responsible?

Horner says the council needs to be more proactive at tackling dereliction, especially in prominent places in the city, and where they are within view of council offices.

The case reminds her of the Dracula-themed, disused house on Buckingham Street, within view of a council office, she says – although the council actually owns that one. 

At the Ormond Hotel site, the council has commissioned murals on the hoarding around the site, says Horner, but has not done enough to push the owners to develop it. 

Responsibility for collecting the derelict sites levy is due to move from the council over to the Revenue Commissioners later this year. “Hopefully revenue collection will be more robust,” says Horner.

But she says the council will still be responsible for adding sites to the derelict sites register, so if the council doesn't add the sites, then Revenue cannot tax the owners.

The current definition of dereliction is about the appearance of the building. 

A site is considered derelict if it “detracts, or is likely to detract, to a material degree from the amenity, character or appearance of land in the neighbourhood”.

If a building or a site appears “ruinous”, “dangerous”, or “unsightly”, then the council can put it on the register. 

A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners said they don’t yet have the details of the new Derelict Property Tax, which was announced in Budget 2026, as the new legislation will be published in the autumn.