Developments in Cork

🙂 Lidi’s plans to locate in Churchfield remained intact as the City Manager facing yet another defeat on the matter last night promised to use a Part 8 Planning on other parts of the site to prevent piecemeal development.
The Councillors who opposed Lidl for the RIGHT reasons (piecemeal development) in the face of huge local support for the supermarket at any cost need to be applauded, i.e Cllrs. McCarthy, Burke, O’Brien.
I must admit, I would have been in favour of allowing Lidl in as a stand alone venture, but fair dues to the above mentioned people for holding on for an ideal outcome. 😎

p.s. I can feel another few compulsory purchase orders coming on to rid the area of low value industry in the area.
Wonder if Cork were the Capital of Culture next year would the list of “sponsors” remain the same as 2005 after last night’s vote?

Just a question. Are there any cases where the Cork City planning authorities have actually turned down an application because it was too low density and the optimium developmental potential of the site was not realised? I keep seeing planning decisions where a story or more is knocked off a proposed development or the density is reduced. There are a number of receint developments close to the city centre where I think the site potential was seriously under-utilised. One in particular is the new Woodies centre which is a mile from the city centre and on a bus route. Here you have a warehouse type single story retail centre with 3 or 4 acres of surface car parking. This I feel should have been developed along the lines of the Blackpool Retail Park which is a perfect example of getting the maximum potential from an urban site and is very well designed with a lived in feel to it. The car parking is condensed into a multistory, offices were built over the retail stores together with apartments and a cinema. A park was even included and handed over to the City Council. All this on a site even smaller that the Woodies one. I do not see the point in the City Council looking for a boundery extention when they are under utilising the land they have. I think any area within a 2 mile radius of the city centre should have the highest possible density to help to reduce the sprawl of the city into the countryside and give more sustainable living and working spaces.

also in the examiner, the first steps in a huge devt in Blarney called Stoneview, a possible 10 year €1bn mainly residential but also other retail, services, schools etc to go along with it – if anyone can find the article, put it up

was there a final verdict on the CPO of the showgrounds yet?

@phatman wrote:

Yes it was. In 2005.

In 2005 Cork was European capital of “culture” – which is not the same thing as saying that it was a capital of culture!

Apart from two notable exhibitions on James Barry and Cork Silver, the European Capital of Culture farce is a gross fireworks embarrasment best fogotten about!!

@Praxiteles wrote:

In 2005 Cork was European capital of “culture” – which is not the same thing as saying that it was a capital of culture!

Apart from two notable exhibitions on James Barry and Cork Silver, the European Capital of Culture farce is a gross fireworks embarrasment best fogotten about!!

Not to be too pedantic, but wouldn’t being European Capital of Culture constitute being a capital of culture?
And even though the organisational skills of the committee left a bit to be desired, the place really is steeped in culture and fully deserved the acolade.

@phatman wrote:

Not to be too pedantic, but wouldn’t being European Capital of Culture constitute being a capital of culture?
And even though the organisational skills of the committee left a bit to be desired, the place really is steeped in culture and fully deserved the acolade.

The purpose of the title European Capital of Culture (ECC) is meant to highlight existing cultural excellence and to encourage cities to develop and innovate in the cultural field. It is meant to be an opportunity to show that culture is central to the life of a city, and demonstrate its contribution to regeneration, social inclusion, education and business.

A submission for consideration for the ECC shall specify how the nominated city intends:

•to highlight artistic movements and styles shared by Europeans which it has inspired or to which it has made a significant contribution,
•to promote events involving people active in culture from other cities in Member States and leading to lasting cultural cooperation, and to foster their movement within the European Union,
•to support and develop creative work, which is an essential element in any cultural policy,
•to ensure the mobilisation and participation of large sections of the population and, as a consequence, the social impact of the action and its continuity beyond the year of the events,
•to encourage the reception of citizens of the Union and the widest possible dissemination of the various events by employing all forms of multimedia,
•to promote dialogue between European cultures and those from other parts of the world and, in that spirit, to optimise the opening up to, and understanding of others, which are fundamental cultural values,
•to exploit the historic heritage, urban architecture and quality of life in the city.

You can judge for yourself how Cork did on the above ( I can’t comment as I was out of the country that year)

I would tend to agree with Praxiteles – The honour is a little watered down now as the host country is chosen in advance ie Ireland had to host it in 2005. Dublin hosted it in 1991 and, as we all know, something that requires a great deal of effort for little return is not something we tend to rush to repeat. So that left Cork, Limerick, Galway, etc. So you might be forgiven for looking at it as a poisoned chalice – culture by default if you like

@kite wrote:

Today’s Irish Examiner
By Tommy Barker

CONTROVERSIAL property investor Joe O’Donovan is putting Cork’s Wilton Shopping Centre on the market for €285 million, less than two months after 172 people lost their jobs there.

The Wilton complex was bought just two years ago for €124m from Tesco, who paid €80m for it in 2002.

The Cork centre, which was at the centre of a rent row after anchor tenant Roches Stores closed and left 172 staff out of work, is being marketed with joint agents DTZ and CBRE.

The complex is being earmarked for major development. Subject to planning, CBRE says it could quadruple to become a new western suburban town centre with a shopping mall, apartments, offices, basement car parking for 1,480 cars and medical centre on up to four floors.

Mr O’Donovan had initially bought 60% of the shopping centre in partnership with Howard Holdings. Last month, he bought out Howard’s 40% share for an undisclosed sum.

The huge price differential being sought is justified by investment specialist Sean O’Brien of CB Richard Ellis, selling for Mr O’Donovan, claiming “it is the best development opportunity in Cork”. The site sits on 17 acres, with scope to develop a new town centre and to go from 150,000 sq ft of buildings to 750,000 sq ft.

However, Tesco has retained ownership of its new 55,000 sq ft store and controls a significant portion of the parking area.

Mr O’Donovan hit the headlines in October after he and Marks and Spencer failed to agree over the rental value of retail space.

Roches had agreed a deal with M&S for the British retailer to take over its lease on the 45,000 square foot anchor tenant’s plot for the same rental price. It also agreed to take on the former Roches staff.

However, Mr O’Donovan demanded that M&S pay an increased rent. When agreement could not be reached, the deal fell apart. &

Last night, Linda Tanham of the retail staff union Mandate said: “The debacle with Roches and M&S did seem to be all about money. We did always suspect that there had to be an ulterior motive. Any shopping centre would jump at the chance to have a retailer like M&S going into it.”

Wilton traders’ spokesman Jim Byrne said traders would have an open mind on any possible redevelopment, and said they’d be glad not to have to deal with Mr O’Donovan as landlord.

“People are entitled to a profit, but it shouldn’t be on the backs of traders. Our business is down 25% or 30% since Roches closed. We will make a sale difficult for him until our concerns are addressed. It is like a bad divorce and a messy divide.”

Mr O’Donovan could not be contacted for comment last night.

I saw an aerial view of the whole complex in the ‘Commercial property’ section into today’s Irish Independent and the whole site looked like it could do with a lot more than theusual paint-job and nice flowerboxes. The site looked hugely underused with vast expanses of car-park, very inefficient.

My idea for redeveloping the site is the increase of density on the site with the whole complex bult up several storeys in parts. The car-parks should be built on and replacemnt capacity created in multi-storey car-parking/underground car-parking. The site has plenty of access roads so a public transport could be routed into a new Wilton.

There’s a nice grouping of houses up arund an old church at the back of the site as well. That got me thinking, maybe they could have pedestrian access through a low-rise village-style area there. They could put loads of street cafés, open-fronted clothes and bazaar-like shops there in conjunction with things like street performers to really recreate the environment of old Town Centres.

There’s a black-box like building in the middle front of the site. That drew my attention as that building looks like its on a site where a central building could be put. I was thinking of a fifteen storey building there as a draw for the complex at a distance.

What do other Archiseekers think?

@Cathal Dunne wrote:

I saw an aerial view of the whole complex in the ‘Commercial property’ section into today’s Irish Independent and the whole site looked like it could do with a lot more than theusual paint-job and nice flowerboxes. The site looked hugely underused with vast expanses of car-park, very inefficient.

My idea for redeveloping the site is the increase of density on the site with the whole complex bult up several storeys in parts. The car-parks should be built on and replacemnt capacity created in multi-storey car-parking/underground car-parking. The site has plenty of access roads so a public transport could be routed into a new Wilton.

There’s a nice grouping of houses up arund an old church at the back of the site as well. That got me thinking, maybe they could have pedestrian access through a low-rise village-style area there. They could put loads of street cafés, open-fronted clothes and bazaar-like shops there in conjunction with things like street performers to really recreate the environment of old Town Centres.

There’s a black-box like building in the middle front of the site. That drew my attention as that building looks like its on a site where a central building could be put. I was thinking of a fifteen storey building there as a draw for the complex at a distance.

What do other Archiseekers think?

Long before the M&S debacle I have heard that plans are to be drawn p to turn it into a mini-Dundrum shopping centre and aimed at upmarket shoppers which does not exist in Cork right now.

From to-day’s Irish Times

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/property/2006/1130/1164693728637.html

Planning & Development
Compiled by Mary Hetherington

A selective guide to developments in your area

AN BORD PLEAN

Hello,

Im new to this site and was wondering if i could get a list of new developments in Cork, residential only and preferably at the planning stage as I’m familiar with all the developments that are at auctioneer stage and I’m hoping to buy off the plans over the next few months.

All information will be appreciated.