Flying Enterprise bar goes on sale for €5.3m

An iconic hospitality venue in Cork has been put up for sale for more than €5m following 70-plus years of trading.

The Flying Enterprise Lounge and Restaurant on Barrack St has been listed this week. Owners Finbarr and Dolly O’Shea are understood to be retiring after 45 years.

The entire complex — including the Flying Enterprise Lounge and Restaurant, The Courtyard Bar on Sober Lane and the former CBS building on Sullivan’s Quay — has been marked for sale for €5.3m.

The complex, which sits on a 0.5-acre site overlooking the River Lee, is being sold via Cohalan Downing and Lisney, and incorporates a number of mixed-use elements with valuable rental income.

The complex is within a 10-minute walk of the main University College Cork campus, with tourist destinations, including St Finbarr’s Cathedral, the Elizabeth Fort and Nano Nagle Place, close by.

While the entire complex is up for grabs, it can be purchased in three separate lots.

Lot one includes The Flying Enterprise Lounge and Restaurant — extending to 1,000 sqm at first-floor level — The Courtyard Bar, and the additional newsagents and off-licence premises at ground-floor level.

The Courtyard Bar can be independently accessed from Sober Lane and from the Flying Enterprise Bar and Lounge areas, and consists of the Quarter Deck bar and lounge, with the lower deck area covered by an extensive awning, leading to an open entertainment space. This element of the property has a combined indoor/outdoor seating area for 700 patrons.

There are also offices, a cold room, and a single-storey lean-to building with ladies’ and gents’ toilets included in this lot, as well as an in-house laundry for the complex. Within this structure there are five apartments/penthouses on the second and third floors, which are fully let, generating €105,000 per annum rental income.

Lot two includes a commercial investment let to Munster Technological University (MTU) for classrooms — with independent access from Sober Lane — which would generate an income of €80,000 per annum.

Lot three includes the two-storey former school building fronting Sullivan’s Quay, extending to 408 sqm, with planning permission for a function room and new entrances.

The Flying Enterprise Lounge and Restaurant, named after the ‘SS Flying Enterprise’ in 1953, has been operated by the O’Shea family since 1980, and has been expanded significantly over the years.

Given the scale of the property, the selling agents expect national interest, and are seeking such expressions by April 10.