Cork planning and development: City skyline will be full of building cranes in 2025

2024 was a significant year for both construction and closures across Cork’s cityscape, as a sizeable amount of traders exited the space, and a range of new large scale residential developments (LRDs) and student accommodation plans were green-lit across various urban and suburban areas.

While a notable amount of closures for smaller businesses were observed across Cork last year, which includes the departure of long-serving Leeside favourites, Nash 19, Tung Sing restaurant on Patrick St, and Perry Street, proposed commercial developments and vital infrastructure plans seemed to take centre stage throughout the first half of 2024.

During this time, planning was approved for a range of new amenities and stores, which included a bar and sky-bridge at the site of a former bookshop in the heart of Cork city; a new surgical hub at Cork University Hospital (CUH), and the introduction of a fourth Cork location in Blackpool for Danish furniture store, Jysk.

The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, kicked-off last year by announcing that the plans for the surgical hub at CUH had been lodged.

Later approved by the council in May, the hub is due to consist of four operating theatres and two minor procedure rooms, and is estimated to see approximately 143 patients accessing the facility per day by appointment, with a maximum of 100 staff members on shift daily.

While the plans were approved, there were 24 conditions attached to the local authority’s approval of the development, with one stipulating that a draft outline plan, “incorporating a landscape masterplan for the entire CUH campus”, must be submitted to the council within a six-month period.

A final campus masterplan must be submitted to the planning authority within a year.

The new hub, to be developed on the western side of the CUH campus, is expected to be operational from 2025.

Speaking at the time the application was approved, Mr Donnelly said the delivery of facilities such as the surgical hub at CUH will be transformative in reducing waiting lists for patients across Cork.

“The development of surgical hubs and elective hospitals will really help to drive a further reduction in the number of patients waiting for treatment,” he said.

“These new facilities will deliver a step change in the way we deliver elective care in this country, benefitting patients and their families.”

The plans submitted for the new bar and sky bridge, by Mutual Enterprises Ltd, at the former Uneeda Bookshop store on Oliver Plunkett St, were granted permission by Cork City Council in June, and will see the space changed into a licensed premises going forward.

The venue will consist of a ground-floor unit, that is converted into a bar; an office and store space on the first floor, and a sky-bridge structure on the second floor which will cross over Market Avenue, to link the new amenity into the existing complex — owned by its developers — that includes the Voodoo Rooms nightclub.

RETAIL

Plans for Jysk’s fourth Cork location, at Blackpool Retail Park, which were submitted in early July, were given the go-ahead in August, bringing the retailer’s number of shops across the country to 21.

The retailer, already present in Ballincollig, Youghal, and Little Island, opened it’s first Irish store in Naas in 2019, and has seen significant growth nationwide since then.

While 2024 proved to be a tumultuous time for the retail and hospitality sphere, the sector also saw further additions made in the heart of the city, with the introduction of a new coffee shop at Paul St Shopping Centre, two new store openings along Opera Lane, and the reopening of Boots Ireland’s flagship store on Half Moon St, following a vast €4.4m investment.

Plans to develop a food court at Paul St Shopping Centre were also lodged by Holren Properties Ahall Ltd in September, following the opening of the new Guji Coffee Bar location, which saw a €100,000 investment into the space.

It was proposed that the new food court would include four food kiosks and kitchen areas, one movable food kiosk, a staff bathroom, and a communal dining space.

Speaking to The Echo at the time the application was lodged, a spokesperson for Holren Properties confirmed that the proposed food court would be located in the upstairs area of the centre, which was formerly used as a dual space for health-food store, Natural Choice, and gaming shop, Other Realms.

“In renovating Paul Street Shopping Centre, [Holren Properties] wants to develop a vibrant, commercial and social hub in the heart of old Cork,” the spokesperson said.

“With this in mind, we developed the notion of a shared food hall using individual trader kiosks — the food hall in turn will benefit from the synergy of the ground floor units which will offer a complementary retail offering.

“The introduction of a culinary and community hub in the heart of the city will increase the vibrancy for inner city neighbourhoods [and] showcases the innovation that can happen.

“We envisage this project will be a catalyst for a vibrant marketplace, and in turn benefit the streets that radiate out from the centre, [as] a rising tide lifts all boats,” they added.

“The synergy of a combined offering helps both the individual business, and the customer enjoy a wider choice under the one roof.”

A decision is yet to be made on this application as Cork City Council has said that information submitted with the application is “not yet sufficient”.

Further information and documentation requested by the local authority include a noise report, a waste management plan, information on hours of operation, estimated numbers of staff to be employed, whether there will be takeaway/delivery services provided, clarification on external signage, and measures to address the parameters of an external extraction vent.

Additionally, plans for a third store opening on Opera Lane were also announced in late 2024, as large UK outdoor retailer, Mountain Warehouse, is set to take over the old four-storey Topshop premises in early 2025, seeing the street fully occupied for the first time since 2019.

ACCOMMODATION AND HOUSING

Also in the latter half of the year, planning for student accommodation and LRDs were popular, as approval for more than 200 beds near University College Cork (UCC) was granted, and plans for more than 315 homes at a site located in the northern fringes of Cork city were given the go-ahead.

Additionally, plans for an LRD consisting of more than 500 homes in Glanmire were lodged with the local authority in November, and an application seeking approval for more than 400 student beds at the site of a former Cork city convent was resubmitted in December.

After more than two years, the planning application seeking permission to develop 206 student bedspaces at the former site of the Finbarr Galvin Motor Dealership, was granted by An Bord Pleanála.

Permission for the development, which will front on to Victoria Cross Road and Orchard Road, originally submitted by Bellmount Developments Limited back in August of 2022, was granted in October.

Subject to 28 conditions, the approved development will see the demolition of existing structures on site and the construction of 78 student accommodation apartments, in a single six-storey block.

The application also said that the proposed development will include student amenity facilities such as a study area, games room, lounge space, laundry room, and server/ICT room.

In making the decision, the board said that, subject to compliance with the conditions, the proposed development would constitute “an acceptable density of development in this location”, and that it “would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity”.

An Bord Pleanála further said that it would be “acceptable in terms of urban design, height, and scale of development” and “would be acceptable in terms of impacts on traffic”.

In September, plans for a strategic housing development (SHD), consisting of 319 homes, a crèche and riverside park, were green-lit on a parcel of land in the northern side of the city, which is owned by the Cork County GAA Board.

The SHD site, located next to the Old Whitechurch Road in Kilbarry, extends to 14.8 hectares, and will accommodate 85 semi-detached houses, 118 terraced homes, 53 duplex units, and 63 apartments.

Further, the site, the GAA said, is adjacent to public lands in LDA ownership, which have scope for further strategic development.

There were 30 conditions attached to An Bord Pleanála’s approval of the development, with one condition stipulating that with reference to the “historic dumping of waste construction material on the site”, prior to commencement, the applicant must agree on an “extensive suite of sampling and testing throughout the site, with the planning authority, to ensure any pockets of contaminated material are identified and managed appropriately, before construction activities begin”.

Another stated that no additional development, other than those shown on the drawings, is permitted to take place above roof level.

Following refusal by An Bord Pleanála in June, plans for a major student development at the site of the former St Joseph’s convent on Model Farm Rd were resubmitted to Cork City Council in December.

The plans, lodged by Lyonshall Ltd, which was also behind the Nido Ashlin House development on Bandon Rd, are seeking to demolish the old St Joseph’s convent to provide for the construction of a 408-bed, purpose-built student accommodation.

At the time of the refusal, An Bord Pleanála said that — having regard to the provisions of the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 — the proposed development, “by reason of the quantity of studio units, the floor area of individual studio units, the limited communal facilities, and the location of the communal facilities in Block 1 only, fails to provide a satisfactory standard of residential amenity for the student population”.

Based on this feedback, the latest proposed development would see 42 fewer studio apartments than in the original application, and would be provided in two apartment buildings reaching between two to five storeys in height.

These buildings would include 57 apartments, ranging in size from three to seven bedrooms, providing 355 bed-spaces, as well as 73 studio apartments, all served by open space and internal student amenities — such as a gym, study areas, and meeting rooms.

Speaking to The Echo last month, the managing director of Lyonshall, Kieran Coughlan, said that he thinks the development would be “a plus for Cork city”.

A decision on the updated application is expected in February of 2025.

Additionally, plans for an LRD at Dunkettle, Glanmire, consisting of 550 homes, were also lodged with Cork City Council in November.

The application, submitted by O’Flynn Construction, proposes the development at a site to the north of Dunkettle House, as part of phase one of a larger project, which aims to see a major 1,036 home development.

Phase one of the LRD would see the construction of a mix of residential units, including 394 two-, three- and four-bed semi-detached and townhouse/terraced units, and 156 apartment/duplex units, comprising of a mix of one and two bed units in 10 blocks, ranging in height from two to six storeys.

The plans also seek to construct a 144-place creche on-site, alongside three commercial units, comprising of a shop, a cafe, and a GP medical facility.

A potential future phase two of the LRD could seek to construct a further 486 homes, consisting of a mix of semi-detached and terraced houses, duplex, and apartment units.

Cork City Council is due to make a decision on the application by January 21.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

There were also a number of disappointments in the construction sector throughout 2024, including notice in November that planning permission for the 15-storey Prism development expired in August, and that the long-awaited events centre must be retendered, as confirmed by Tánaiste Micheál Martin in October.

Initially, the consortium that had won the tender for the events centre, Bam and Live Nation Gaiety, was expected to benefit from €20m in State funding, but was later increased to €50m in 2020 and then to €57m in 2022.

It was then revealed at a Cork City Council meeting in December 2023 that additional funding would be required for the project due to inflation, and following the completion of a detailed design.

In terms of an expected timescale, Mr Martin said that while the Government will try to accelerate the process, they simply “had no choice” but to go out for a retender following “categoric” advice from the Attorney General.

In relation to the Prism development, despite Tower Holdings Group lodging an application in August for a five-year extension to their planning permission, four-and-a-half years after the turning of the sod, the development was axed.

While the Tower Holdings Group stated that a downturn in project finance as a result of covid-19 delayed the development, the council responded to the extension application saying that works undertaken to date were “not substantial” and that the Planning and Development Act 2000 removes the possibility of an extension for the project due to the lack of progress.