Tourist attraction The Vaults to close after failing to hit expected numbers
DUBLIN tourism attraction The Vaults Live is to shut its doors after just over a year in business, staff were informed on Friday.
Construction giants the Lagan family, who are the main shareholders, are to pull the plug on the interactive venue after a bid to bring in a new shareholder failed last week. Staff — including more than 20 actors — were told of the development on Friday and are to receive formal emails explaining the closure tomorrow.
The €5.3m walk-through venue combined live performances and special effects to tell a series of stories about the history of Dublin, featuring characters such as Bram Stoker and Molly Malone.
The tourism venture was originally conceived and financed by broadcaster and entrepreneur Paul Blanchfield and
Gerald Heffernan, a former independent producer who founded Irish production company Frontier Films.
The backers had envisaged that the Dublin 8 venue would ultimately attract up to 450,000 visitors a year but the crowds failed to materialise.
The venue — a converted schoolhouse just off Thomas Street — was on leasehold and it is understood that the closure will not see result in large outstanding debts.
Cost overruns emerged in the summer of 2018 before the extensively refurbished venue could open, and the company was placed into examinership. It was then the subject of rival investment plans from Tayto Park owner Ray Coyle and separately from the Belfast-based Lagan family, who had just sold their huge construction materials group for £455m.
The Lagans won out and backed Heffernan and Blanchfield with a €3m investment that allowed the venue to open in October 2018.
Sources said the show had proven popular with audiences but that marketing the venue had proven difficult. “It was an attraction that was just ahead of its time,” said a source. “It didn’t help that last year was not a great one for tourism.”