lexington

*UPDATES*

🙂 Aldi Stores Developments Ltd have been granted permission by ABP for the development of a new discount food store on the former Kearys Toyota dealership in Grange, near Douglas. This is the 2nd batch of good news for Aldi after another recent grant for a ‘town centre’ development along Ballincollig Main Street. Aldi’s have also purchased a large site along the Ballyhooly Road in Ballyvolane for a prospective store development.

– just on that note, related to Kearys, it may be interesting to note, Bill Keary has (in conjunction w/ his development partner Liam O’Callaghan) been granted permission by Cork County Council for the development of 71 residential units (55 houses, 8 duplexes and 8 apartments) at Curragh, Kanturk.

Has any one images of the development on the lower road opposite the siemens building being developed by Bride View Developments hopefully it will be to the same high standard as their apartment development on the site of the old arcadia ball room.Simple but tasty!

BrideView Developments actually purchased that site, the former Unity Garage Petrol Station, for 600,000euros last year from former owner Sean McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy had applied for F.P.P. on his garage site before the sale – it included 5 apartments over 2 ground-floor retail units. BrideView have applied and been granted as far as I’m aware, for some minor extensions to Apartment No.5. CCC made a big deal about the prominence of the site before planning was granted and requested the design be of a complimentary nature. It’s a minor development, but BrideView are pitching it big under the title ‘Unity House’. Completion is expected for the Summer, with units for viewing in the Autumn according to BrideView.

😮 Paul Kenny (Kenny Group) is to apply for the demolition and redevelopment of his car-park facility, surrounding retail and office buildings in a block bordered by St. Patrick’s Quay, Brian Boru Street, Ship Street and the Lower Glanmire Road. The redevelopment will consist of a 4 – 5 storey office building of some 83,000sq ft fronting onto St. Patrick’s Quay, Ship Street and Brian Boru Street; w/ a 6/7 storey mixed-use building providing retail usage of 15,000sq ft on the ground floor and with further office usage on all upper floors, measuring some 54,000sq ft – this building will front the Lower Glanmire Road, Brian Boru Street and Ship Street. 2 basement levels will provide 235 parking spaces, accessed from Ship Street. The Protected Structure facades fronting St. Patrick’s Quay will be retained and incorporated into the project. Design is by Wilson Architecture. The extended closing date for the Revenue Commissioners new office accommodation submissions is April 24th 2005 – Mr. Kenny has thrown his application in just before time, no doubt the prospects of a tenant like the Revenue Commissioners was an influencing factor (considering its proximity to Kent Station, an OPW requirement in new RC offices. Mr. Kenny had presented this site and the one at 50 Grand Parade to the OPW). In total, the 2 linked buildings will provide approx. 137,000sq ft (gross) of office space.

Prior to this application, Mr. Kenny had sought the development of a multi-storey car-park for this location (back in 1998), albeit on a smaller site – encompassing only the car-park element of the block. That application was refused by the then Cork Corporation – in what is widely believed to have been an issue of ‘favouritism’ for the Metropole Multi-storey Car Park a little further west along St. Patrick’s Quay.

The Kenny Group is also expected to indicate the future of its 50 Grand Parade site in the coming, near future.

Well obviously the multi-purpose event centre is a crucial development factor – I am hoping to have a sort of ‘Report’ on the centre and the people behind it (in light of recent media flurry) for some time over the next 2 weeks – incl. Paul Montgomery’s ‘adventures’ at Black Ash and Horgan’s Quay, OCP’s proposal – and it’s on again/off again status (as well as the Mahon Point’s link to Mr. Montgomery), why another group has been actively concentrating on a prominent site within the vicinity of the docklands etc etc. There are also issues of Government support in the mix and the contents of the next Finance Bill publication – but the report will depend greatly on the co-operation of certain ‘sources’.

My response earlier to pier39 , was based on the projects that have been actively applied for. I’ll get back to this at a later stage – this evening probably.

🙂 Anna O’Connor (Sandymount, Dublin) has reapplied to CCC for permission to redevelop her site at the corner of York Street/Hill and Wellington Road. Her previous application was refused on grounds of height and overdevelopment – it included, a 6-storey building over basement carpark w/ 24 apartments and 800sq ft of office accommodation on the ground floor – all built around a courtyard area. The new application is significantly toned down with a generally 4-storey (max’ing at 5-storeys south along York Hill) building containing 17 apartments, all with balconies, landscaped courtyard and basement parking. The site is in much need of development – but it is located within a highly sensitive area. MV Cullinan Architects are responsible for the design. A decision is due on the 9th June 2005.

Many of you have asked how come no images of Victoria Mills, developed by Paul Montgomery & Edmund Kenneally, designed by Derek Tynan & Associates, constructed by Bowen Construction, have been posted on this thread considering all the talk about it. Although I have provided links, here’s an image, finally! Hmmm. Phase 2 begins late May.

🙂 After a series of apparent weather disruptions (including the flooding of the site), Cleary Doyle Contractors have finally got around to erecting the 1st of 2 tower cranes over the site of Cork City Hall’s 32m euro extension, designed by ABK Architects. Construction is expected to take approx. 18 months with an official opening set for Autumn 2006.

Well there seems to be a lot of talk about roundabouts in another thread on this forum – so I said I may as well update this thread w.r.t. the progress being made on the Kinsale Road Roundabout Flyover. This long overdue and it’s highly inflated budget (upwards of 42m euro) are now scheduled to get a move on this June, with Ascon as contractors. This is following a further delay which without, would have seen the project rolling 2 months ago.

Here’s a little bird’s eye view of the flyover – what it will look like when complete. Arup are the consultants for the project.

Michael O’Donoghue of Rockfell Investments

You may remember a few months ago that I post Rockfell Investments (a development SPV set up by Michael O’Donoghue of the O’Donoghue/Ring Hotel Group and Munster Joinery) based at Lacka Cross intended to start work on their Cornmarket Street development for April. The development which received the greenlight in October 2004 was subject to substantial revisions by architect Niall Coffey (w/ Frank Ennis & Associates) and in the end was approved with 65 apartments, 66 basement parking spaces and over 120,000sq ft of retail over 9 units at the former Musgrave (Guy & Co.) building, Noddy’s Toystore and former Paul Street church – however things have been stalled ever since the developer was approached by O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) MD Owen O’Callaghan. It would seem, OCP are very protective of their retail provision dominance in the Cork city area. Besides OCP, the only real threat to this crown is from the Shipton Group (Clayton Love Jnr’s vehicle) and to a lesser extent, O’Flynn Construction. Talks were initiated about a possible joint venture in the Cornmarket Street development – despite OCP having its own ambitions set on the 150m euro retail/residential building planned for a 0.6acre block at Academy Street (an application is still set for this summer). There remains a projected demand of some 400,000sq ft of city centre retail space in Cork – Academy Street would bring around 200,000sq ft of that space between 30/40 units across its lower levels. The negotiation stage is still unclear, but it looks as though OCP would be anxious for the Rockfell development to link across into its aging Paul Street S.C. – which would in turn be revamped to the standards provided by the Cornmarket Street project. Tesco would remain anchor tenant for Paul Street. The link-up would also provide Rockfell’s project with direct access to the public multi-storey car-park as it has no such facilities of its own (with the 66 basement spaces designated for resident use only). As for a further link-up to Academy Street nearby, I find it unlikely and have not heard of anything as of yet. Academy Street will primarily avail of pedestrian-based trade given its accessibility and access onto Patrick’s Street – remember, the street sees approx. half-a-million pedestrian movements per week, that’s a lot of trade – it is also a reason OCP were so anxious to have a frontage onto the street by acquiring the Taboo bar and current The Jean Scene building (notably, The Jean Scene have applied for a unit at the Academy Street facility along with Gasoline – who will seek to transfer their business to the centre from Merchants Quay S.C.). Rumours persist that OCP have since managed to strike a deal with the Reidy family regarding their Le Cheateau bar – but the deal entails that the licensed premises will still remain on completion of the development.

A clear position will be made known soon regarding Cornmarket Street – whether Mr. O’Donoghue accepts the offer with OCP or not, it’s clear that the offer could be an attractive one to him. Nothing has been set in stone yet – but its nice to know what’s going on in the background. I really like the Rockfell project. Nonetheless, a target has been set for clearance and excavation works to commence for this summer, with some tenancy agreements having already been accorded for the development – including a large unit for furniture retailler Habitat. Other rumours include a unit for Dixons and Boots (who are expected will transfer from Patrick’s Street to avail of a larger city centre unit with greater presence – no confirmation has yet been solidified).

I have to say, I admire Mr. O’Donoghue’s motto toward business, it’s quoted as being “The best is only barely good enough for me!”

😎 I hope to reveal the architects behind Academy Street soon – its all pending – but if anyone is wise to this, some members of the Academy Street design team were present on invitation by Mr. O’Callaghan to the opening of Mahon Point S.C.

🙂 Lidl have acquired a site along the Ballyhooly Road in Ballyvolane for which they intend to develop a discount food store (and possibly additional retail units) – no application has been made yet, so the specifics are not yet clear. It seems Dunnes Stores is still not safe even despite outbidding the Germal retaillers for a 1.9 acre site near its Ballyvolane S.C.

😎 O’Flynn Construction have applied to make a number of finishing alterations to their Ballincollig Town Centre shopping centre facility and adjoining multi-storey car-park. Were once, the northern elevation of the S.C. and part of the Western elevation of the car-park were set to be finished with timber cladding, this will now be omitted in favour of a less maintenance heavy finish of metal sheet cladding. Dunnes Stores will anchor 2 of the main anchor units (grocery and clothing), providing a combined area of approx. 60,000sq ft, with the 3rd anchor tenant set to be announced shortly, with a 30,000sq ft unit. Easons are already taking up a units 10 & 11 with a newsagents and cafe. Vero Moda are also supposedly looking at a unit but I haven’t heard anything of this other than 3rd party info. The S.C. is scheduled for opening in October 2005.

Ballincollig Town Centre S.C.

🙂 The DAA have seemingly granted requests by the CAA and others to provide air-bridges at Cork’s new airport terminal. The bridges had been cast in doubt after penny-pinching exercises by the DAA and Dept. of Transport. However only 2 of the originally planned 3 bridges will be provided – allowing for a saving of just under 400,000euro (wow! :rolleyes: ) Provision was made in the airport design to facilitate a northern extension (pier) home to 3 additional bridges subject to demand and airport capacities – but this Phase 2 element is not on the cards for the forseeable future. The 2 bridges will be secured for the interm, with an option by CAA to purchase the 3rd bridge at a future point from its own funding. Though it’s not what was promised, its a small victory, and it represents what was undoubtedly an uphill struggle for CAA Chairman Joe Gantly, so well done sir.

I assume you’re referring to the Kenny site at 50 Grand Parade??? Or the Patrick’s Quay site???

Well I can tell you PRC Architects are working on a revised scheme for the 50 Grand Parade site – the details can’t be made public yet, but an application is expected in the not to distant future. It will represent a flagship project for the Kenny Group in Cork.