Plans lodged for more than 550 homes in Jacob’s Island

An application has been lodged for 10-year planning permission for a residential development of 556 units across four blocks at Jacob’s Island in Mahon.

The application, lodged by Hibernia Star Ltd, linked to McCarthy Developments (Cork) Ltd, is part of an ongoing €750m development, expected to ultimately deliver more than 1,200 homes.

The scheme will be halfway to meeting that target when the 149 units currently under construction are complete.

The latest development, across three blocks, with completion dates ranging from May to November 2027, will be predominantly two-bed apartments, with 150 one-bed units, and the tenure will be cost-rental. Approved housing body Respond will own and operate the apartments.

The proposed 556-unit development features extensive green amenity areas, the highlight being a 2,976sq m central park. A planned garden area to the north-east of the site will incorporate a preserved wine cellar, the last physical remains of the historic Lakeland House which once occupied the site.

Each of the four residential blocks will also have its own landscaped courtyard space.

The latest planning application from Hibernian Star Ltd comes in the wake of a change last July of guidelines governing apartment building.

An application for 489 units was shot down by An Bord Pleanála a year ago but the new guidelines are less restrictive in terms of dwelling mix.

The developer has also proposed upgrades to the local road network to address traffic congestion concerns.

Permission was granted in 2023 for a 165-bed hotel and 10,000sq m of office space, and McCarthy Developments managing director Tom McCarthy said they plan to start work on both elements in Q1 2027 “subject to an operator, and occupiers for the offices”.

119-unit scheme on South Douglas Rd

Meanwhile, enabling works are about to commence on a key location in Douglas, on one of the last greenfield development sites of scale in the city.

The 119-unit South Douglas Rd scheme is being spearheaded by O’Callaghan Properties, in a joint venture with the Whitaker family-owned motor dealership Johnson & Perrott, under the banner of Ballincurrig Developments.

The enabling works are due to begin next month and the first 39 homes, in what will be known as Bridlewood, will be launched in the third quarter this year, with the first residents in situ in about two years. A creche is also part of the first phase of the four-phase development. The 2.4-hectare site, behind Johnson & Perrott’s Douglas Rd dealership, was used to grow crops until relatively recently.

The homes earmarked for South Douglas Rd will be sold privately, with an element of social and affordable housing.

The site is zoned as a “sustainable residential neighbourhood” in the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 and is also noted as a “neighbourhood development site”. 

Such sites are considered to have the potential to provide “significant benefit to the local neighbourhood and act as catalyst developments, if developed appropriately”.