Prime site in Carrigaline has asking price of €3.2m

A prime site in the heart of Carrigaline has been launched to market with a guide price of €3.2m.

The 4.5-acre site — where the guide price equates to €711,111 per acre — has approval for a substantial mixed-use development, including a diverse range of 86 housing units, four commercial units, a public plaza, and car and bicycle parking spaces (47 and 174 respectively). Pedestrian access is also provided as part of the scheme.

Of the 86 homes — 17 in total — will be set aside for social and affordable housing as required by planning legislation.

The specific breakdown includes:

11 three-bed duplex units; 17 two-bed duplex units; Nine two-bed own door ground floor apartments; 12 one-bed own door ground floor apartments; 19 one-bed apartments, and 18 two-bed apartments.

A cafe, gym, hair salon, day care, and newsagents are proposed for the ground floor commercial units.

Boar’s Head Ltd obtained planning permission for the mixed-use scheme last October, having acquired the site from German budget supermarket chain Aldi.

Aldi, who bought eight acres in total some years ago, was required to submit a master plan for the site as part of their own planning application to build a €10m store. Once permission was granted, they returned surplus land — 5.21 acres — to market in 2023 with an overall guide price of €2.9m.

Commercial agents Cushman & Wakefield sold the land in two lots in 2024: 4.5 acres to Boar’s Head, and the remainder to fast food chain McDonald’s, who are currently building a drive-thru on a profile corner site.

Several developers have been active in Carrigaline where housing demand is high, including Astra Construction, Ruden Homes and Bridgewater Homes.

Earlier this year, Cork County Council bought the home ground of Avondale Football Club — a 4.62-acre (1.9ha) site in Carrigaline —in a deal valued at €2.5m. The land is zoned residential and could potentially accommodate up to 70 homes.

The Boar’s Head site — adjacent to Carrigaline Main St, between Carrigaline Court Hotel and SuperValu — was part of land that had an ambitious development history dating back to the early 2000s, with joint development plans at the time by veteran retailer developers the Love family’s Shipton Group, with local SuperValu retailer and hotelier Barry Collins also in the frame at the time.

However, the plan was deemed dependent on the western relief road, with compulsory purchase orders issued around 2007, just prior to the country’s economic crash. The relief road only finally opened in 2022.

Carrigaline has expanded greatly in the past decade or so and is now the largest town in county Cork with a population in excess of 18,000 — and growing.