Looking ahead to Cork beyond 2022
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During the preparation of our recent planning application, we discovered that in 1780, Cork Corporation devised proposals to reclaim 230 acres of what is now the South Docks, to develop a new town centre. The area at the time was marshland and annotated as “dry at hours ebb”, indicating it flooded twice daily at high tide. By 1841, the area had been reclaimed from the river and formed part of the large City Park which subsequently became Cork Racecourse.
The wonderful book by Miriam Nyhan Are you still Below recalls when Henry Ford visited Cork in 1912. He was so concerned by the level of poverty and deprivation that he decided to ‘bring industry to Cork’ and acquired the racecourse from Cork Corporation for £500. There was considerable opposition to the sale at the time and it is to Cork Corporation’s credit that the objections were overcome as Fords went on to create over 2,000 jobs. I often think this may have been the precursor to Ireland’s very successful transition from an agrarian economy to the highly educated open economy we know today, all built on attracting international foreign direct investment.
It is clear to me that Cork and the Docklands is continually evolving and adapting and we are very proud to be involved in the next chapter of the story.
One of the key economic trends underpinning Ireland and indeed Cork’s potential is population growth. Ireland is projecting a 15% growth in GDP this year and was the only EU country to grow in 2020. Our population is forecast to increase by 1m people by 2040 and Cork is projected to get around 10% of this growth or 100,000 additional residents. This is in effect a doubling of the population of the city in the next twenty years. Higher population helps to justify public and private sector investment, particularly in areas of health, transport, education and housing. It also helps to attract foreign direct investment and skilled staff, particularly for the new economy.
It was great to see the Government’s commitment to this growth potential earlier this year, with the announcement by the Taoiseach of €350m regeneration funding for the Docklands under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund. Investment of this magnitude will help fulfil national planning objectives and will help Cork to become a counterweight to the growth of Dublin. The Docklands, in conjunction with sufficient public transport infrastructure, can accommodate 20,000 new residents or 20% of the projected population increase in a sustainable manner and avoid urban sprawl.
There have been a number of significant developments in Cork over the last two years which may have gone unnoticed due to lockdowns and other restrictions. The opening of the new deep-water berth in Ringaskiddy, the upgrading of the runway at Cork Airport as well as the ongoing progress at the new Dunkettle interchange are part of the key infrastructure projects driving Cork’s future growth.
There has been over 1 million square feet of new grade A office development in Cork city centre, almost all of which is let or under offer at the moment. This equates to around 10,000 jobs created in the core city centre by companies such as Clearstream, Apple, Varonis and Forcepoint to name but a few.
However, the lack of housing remains a key challenge. We commenced construction of 88 apartments in Lancaster Gate earlier this year. These units are being delivered as part of the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) initiative in conjunction with Cluid and Cork City Council. Two bed apartments will be available to let at rents from €1,100 per month. This scheme is an innovative initiative on behalf of the Government and will make a significant contribution to delivering much needed homes throughout the country.
However, there is still a fundamental viability issue in delivering new apartments for rental or private purchase in Cork. There has not been any new private apartments built in Cork since 2008 as it is simply not economic to build them. Our development at Lancaster Gate could only have gone ahead with the support of the CREL scheme, allied to the fact that infrastructural works on the site had been completed some years ago. We urgently need viability matters to be addressed to ensure that other schemes like this can be built, housing demand can be met and rental levels can become sustainable.
The Croi Conaithe initiative in the Government’s recent Housing for All strategy may go someway to bridging the viability gap, but the devil will be in the detail and it remains to be seen whether this initiative will go far enough to make build-to-sell apartments viable.
If we are to accommodate an additional 100,000 people in Cork, it is critical that key infrastructural projects are delivered in a timely way. The Cork Metropolitan Area Transportation Scheme proposes a €3.5bn transformation of life in the city and in the Cork Metropolitan area through the provision of best-in-class public transport services. However, even optimistically, many of these upgrades will not be completed until 2031 -2040. It is clear that the private car will remain an important part of the transport system during the transition period until such time as the public transport infrastructure is in place to facilitate more sustainable modes of transport.
Another key piece of infrastructure required is the proposed upgrade of the N20 to Limerick. Cities don’t trade in isolation but need the economic agglomeration that transport connectivity provides.
The Cork-Limerick Road is a throwback to the past, whose users face the uncomfortable statistic of being four times more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious accident than the national average.
That alone makes a new road, preferably a motorway, not just desirable but essential.
Our recent planning application for the South Docks totals 1 million square feet and includes a broad mix of uses from medical, offices, leisure, entertainment and residential as well as the provision of extensive public realm which will become an attraction in its own right. We hope to submit an application for 2,000 houses and apartments across a broad mix of tenures from cost rental, social, PRS and build-to-sell in the very near future.
Cork Corporation recognised that the city was at a crossroads when Henry Ford offered much-needed investment in 1912. I too feel that Cork is at a crossroads and is in a good place to recover quickly from the pandemic and embark on a rapid growth trajectory. However, the provision of infrastructure is critical in order for this to happen.
- Brian O’Callaghan is MD of O’Callaghan Properties