RIP Laura Buckley Noonan
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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Nothing will happen with vacant buildings in Clonmel, such as the former Clonmel Arms Hotel in Sarsfield Street, unless pressure is put on the owners of these sites, says District Mayor Pat English
Market Place and the former Clonmel Arms Hotel are eyesores on the landscape of the town, and until the council started putting pressure on the owners of both sites nothing would happen with them.
That’s according to Clonmel’s Mayor Pat English.
He told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District that the same goes for all vacant buildings in the district.
People just couldn’t sit on these buildings and expect them to remain idle and serve as an investment fund for the owners, while nothing was being done about it.
Cllr English said he agreed with Cllr Siobhán Ambrose that the council had done as much as it could with the former Clonmel Arms Hotel and Market Place, where most of the units in the retail area are vacant.
Some units at Market Place have also been vandalised.
Cllr Ambrose had suggested that an in-camera meeting, without the media being present, should be held between the Borough District, the owners of the former Clonmel Arms Hotel and the CEO of Remcoll, which owns most of the units at Market Place, to discuss proposals for both sites.
She pointed out that the council didn’t own either site.
District Administrator Carol Creighton had a scheduled meeting with the owners of the former Clonmel Arms Hotel last Thursday, she told the Borough District meeting, which was held the previous day.
She said that council officials had been working with the owner for some time.
The former hotel, which closed over 17 years ago, was put up for sale in November 2021, and has been in a state of dereliction for several years.
Planning permission for a 114-bedroom hotel on the site was granted almost four years ago.
Dining, bar, conference and function facilities, as well as a basement car park and leisure centre, are included in the plans.
Meanwhile, most of the shop units at Market Place are unoccupied, following several shop closures and relocations over the years.
These include anchor tenant SuperValu, which closed in January 2016 with the loss of 46 jobs.
Eighteen buildings in the area were sold at a distressed property auction almost ten years ago for a total of €920,000.
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