Sale of four high-profile derelict buildings in Cork City delayed
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A legal snag has delayed the planned sale of four high-profile derelict buildings in Cork City which were acquired by compulsory purchase order (CPO) earlier this year.
It comes ahead of the expected approval by the city council on Monday of the sale of two separate derelict buildings, which have shared ownership links with the four properties on North Main Street.
The has learned that Cork City Council has run into issues finalising the legal position in relation to the eyesore buildings it owns at 62 to 65 North Main Street following its CPO of the sites, approved last February.
It is understood that the issues emerged after the buildings were issued with CPOs and later vested in the council, which gave it the legal powers to enter them and make them safe.
That work involved the removal of a substantial quantity of rubble and debris from behind the facades left by the partial collapse in 2019 of the rear of two of the buildings.
It is understood that this led to the emergence of technical issues linked to site maps which could impact the title to small portions of land, and which must be resolved before the properties or sites can be offered for sale.
A spokesman for the council confirmed that the legal issues have delayed its efforts to sell the sites but he insisted that work is ongoing to resolve the issues as part of the council’s ongoing efforts to remove dereliction from this terrace of buildings.
“Cork City Council is formalising the legal position on the properties at 62-65 North Main Street,” it said in a statement.
“Conditions for inspecting these buildings have been very difficult owing to the very poor state of No 63 and 64 in particular, which had both substantially collapsed prior to acquisition.
“The council will be bringing forward a plan for the comprehensive redevelopment of these properties at the earliest opportunity.”
The four buildings came to highlight the blight of dereliction in Cork City, and the complex legal and technical issues faced by local authorities in addressing dereliction, following the partial collapse of parts of two of the buildings in 2019.
In granting its consent last February for the compulsory acquisition of the four buildings, An Bord Pleanála board it considered that each of the sites “detracts to a material degree from the amenity character and appearance of the land in the neighbourhood”.
It said it considered each of the structures to be in “a ruinous and dangerous condition”, and that each, therefore, came within the definition of a derelict site as defined under Section 3 of the Derelict Sites Act 1990.
The objections to the CPO on each of the buildings “cannot be sustained”, it added.
It adopted a similar view to two adjoining buildings on Barrack St, which the council acquired by CPO around the same time, and which are now set to be sold on Monday, pending council approval.