Developments in Cork

I noticed someone has ripped up some of the new paving on Carey’s Lane or French Church street (can never remember which one’s which). Seems the paving’s been replaced by red cement!

Can’t the city council go after people for this ? It’s vandalism in my books.
Seems it’s a gas connection into one of the buildings along the street.
Surely red-brick paving isn’t THAT hard to replace!

@MrX wrote:

I noticed someone has ripped up some of the new paving on Carey’s Lane or French Church street (can never remember which one’s which). Seems the paving’s been replaced by red cement!

Can’t the city council go after people for this ? It’s vandalism in my books.
Seems it’s a gas connection into one of the buildings along the street.
Surely red-brick paving isn’t THAT hard to replace!

That type of shoddy work is a disgrace.
The trouble is that nobody in City Hall gives a damm. The City Manager himself allowed the destruction of the historic paving outside City Hall; this was replaced by cheap Chinese “granite substitute”
Local Councillors turn a blind eye to such vandalism as there are only a handful of votes to be got in the city centre.

There are a few issues in Ireland:

1) Pavements should need to be opened so often. Services go in in a totally unplanned way with no provision made for access.

2) If a contractor opens a pavement and doesn’t restore it to its original state, he should be sued for damages. It’s a waste of tax payers money. We end up footing the bill for expensive repaiving jobs paying for damage inflicted upon our roads and pavements by profitable telecommunications companies, ESB, Bord Gais etc..

There is a supplement with today’s Irish Times entitled ‘Cork First’. Within it there are articles about The Docklands, and other general changes to the city.

I couldn’t find an on line version, but maybe it is there somewhere.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0606/index.html

@THE_Chris wrote:

Hmmmm. I remember this was all supposed to be upgraded to overpasses, but now that Amgen have put the date back I dunno. Traffic lights there would be daft beyond belief. Just put the overpasses in plz.

word on street is that Amgen gone gone…… might explain the traffic light option…

Maybe I’m wrong but word from many in the industry despite pre election propaganda.. amgen alot more than a put back date…. if anyone has better news would love to hear it..

@Spinal Tap wrote:

Joe O’Donovans scheme for the Capitol Cinema and Patricks St. Sites is in for planning today as there is a feature on the proposed scheme in todays Examiner.The usual suspects lined up H&M,Zara,Habitat etc.
Its a lot better than his previous scheme for the same site IMO.

Some details:

Five storey over 2 basement fronting onto Grand Parade. Demolition of Central Shoe Store block, Capitol Cinema Block, Post Office and Kebab Restaurant.
On patrick Street, demolition of all but facades. Demolition of the Vineyard public house, but retention of the market tavern (a listed building).

Developers seem reluctant to offer details, images of the St. Patrick St. finish, which worried me a little. But Grand Parade looks much superior to the previous effort on the site. I have no doubt it will be a hard to swallow complete demolition of the buildings on either side of the capitol for some people, but the design seems to merit it. By the look of things, 1 floor will be lopped off the top of the Grand Parade side (the top two of five are set back).

@samuel j wrote:

word on street is that Amgen gone gone…… might explain the traffic light option…

Maybe I’m wrong but word from many in the industry despite pre election propaganda.. amgen alot more than a put back date…. if anyone has better news would love to hear it..

I passed there yesterday and they had put up part of a central median and some streetlights in the middle. No where near the layout you’d expect for a flyover 🙁

@KenzoTange wrote:

why would any developer take on the ‘risk’ of docklands in these uncertain times when there are so many ‘safe’ opportunites for infill in the leafy suburbs?

I agree it’s risky for a developer to take a chance on the docklands, but that’s their problem. I don’t think we should adopt a liberal planning policy simply because developers are getting cold feet about suitable but green (i.e. non-established, not mature) sites.

Also it’s very unlike the docklands in Dublin, Cork’s docks are very much part of the city centre where as Dublins have historically been a bit of a ‘no go area’ and will require a lot of work to ultimately connect them to the mainstream of the city centre.

The quays (and the docks are just an extension of those) in Cork are very much part of the city itself.

It’s no where near as ‘risky’ as docklands projects in Dublin (or possibly in Belfast and Limerick).

Cork’s docks also have a very spectacular setting which will be highly desirable. Dublins are a lot more post-industrial and need to overcome a major image/marketing problem before they really take off.

It’s a totally different scenario to the IFSC / Grand Canal dock in many ways, even though some of the elements of the site are similar.

The Cork docks are also reachable from the city centre on foot, completely safely.
Where as Dublin’s docks seem to take you through a dodgy area of town before you emerge into the IFSC or Grand Canal area. It never feels connected to the city, but rather a new development near by.

Also, the cork docklands area does not have the history of social problems, deprivation etc that seems to be a major issue around parts of the old docklands in Dublin

I don’t think it’ll be a risky developement, nor do I think there’ll be much difficulty convincing individuals or businesses that it’s a nice location.

It’s very much prime real estate waiting to happen.

As for developers:
The established suburbs in Cork are not really any less risky than the docklands area. The major attraction for the docks would be more scope for development in terms of planning / zoning, cheaper land, tax breaks and as the area develops as a location, it will be easier to market, particularly for commercial / office space.

@who_me wrote:

The principal problem is the initial risk.

An apartment in the docklands might be very attractive, but would you want to buy (even a luxury) apartment on Centre Park Rd. as it currently stands? Driving through an industrial area to and from work. Heavy trucks rolling by day in, day out (I assume). No shops or any kind of residential facilities nearby. I’ve no idea what the air quality is like but I can’t imagine it’s the best.

If potential residents are thinking that, you can bet the developer who’s sitting on a site in the Docklands is going to keep sitting on it until they can maximise the return on their investment.

i agree with Mr X earlier, the closeness of the docklands to cork mitigates the risk hugely – the risk for the buyer, buy now, endure some trucks and construction going up and down, absolutely true, but if you wait until the place is pristine (and you will be waiting i would say) then the prices will have gone up a good bit I would say.

I dont think the developer will sit on it too long, if one goes the others will