Demise of a Tipperary hotel: Closed for 20 years, demolished for three, but rebuild plans on hold
Councillors in Tipperary say they have faith in a private developer who bought a long-derelict town centre building, despite ongoing delays in bringing the site back into use.
The former Clonmel Arms Hotel on Sarsfield Street closed in 2005, with the building lying vacant ever since.
The former hotel was sold several years ago and was demolished in 2023.
At the January meeting of the Clonmel Borough District, independent councillor Niall Dennehy asked the council if there were any updates on the site, or any plans to bring it back into use.
"It was hailed as a gamechanger for Clonmel when the Clonmel Arms was demolished, but it’s still a heap of rubble up in the middle of the town centre,” Cllr Dennehy said.
The developer of the site had planned to reopen a 100-bedroom hotel there, but this plan stalled after he failed to secure a hotel chain to run the new hotel.
In July 2025, the developer was said to be close to submitting a planning application to the council for a 60-bed hotel at the site, but to date, no requests for planning have been filed.
Today's News in 90 Seconds - Monday, January 26
Responding to Cllr Dennehy, Fine Gael councillor John Fitzgerald said that the former hotel being demolished was a gamechanger, and it gave hope to the town that the site would be brought back into use.
"Here we had a building that was falling onto the street, falling onto parked cars, it was hoarding and harbouring antisocial behaviour within it, constant fires, gardaí having to go in and out, and when it did get sold and it got demolished, I would have said that it was a gamechanger,” Cllr Fitzgerald said.
"It was a change for where the future of that site was going to go, it hasn’t been redeveloped as a hotel yet, but in time, I have every faith in the builder, who is a local man, and he doesn’t seem to sit on his hands in relation to other projects in the town,” he added.
Cllr Dennehy said that works needed to happen on the site as a matter of urgency, recalling that he had asked the council to consider assisting wherever possible.
"You will be aware that I made the suggestion at the end of last year that the local authority enter into a public private partnership to assist however possible,” he said.
"We need work to happen, and it needs to happen fast,” Cllr Dennehy urged.
Fianna Fáil councillor Siobhán Ambrose said that everyone in the council chamber wants to see the site redeveloped, but that building costs have gone through the roof since the building was sold.
"Everybody wants to see this go ahead, the person bought it in good faith, they did buy it to turn it around into a hotel, but everything has changed, the cost even if you want to build a garage now, it’s extraordinarily expensive compared to before Ukraine, before Covid, materials have gone through the roof,” Cllr Ambrose said.
"The person is looking at the possibility of maybe a mixed-use development, but they are very well-intentioned, and I think most people know their history, they have a history of delivering on projects in the town,” Cllr Ambrose said.