Crane signals start of build of first major docklands apartment block in Cork

The apartment block, some of which will stretch to 11-storeys, kick-starts residential development on the quaysides, traditionally a mix of commercial units and dereliction.

The last non-student apartment development of scale in the city was largely completed in the noughties, when O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) built Lancaster Gate on Western Road, with a final 88-unit block completed in more recent years. Other than that, all of the large-scale apartment developments have been student accommodation. 

The Horgan’s Quay apartment development, where the plan is for 108 one-bedroom and 194 two-bedroom units, will not be any higher than the two existing eight-storey office blocks because of reduced ceiling heights in the residential segment, which will have 20,000 sq ft of retail on the ground floor. The residential block will not have underground parking, instead there will be 50 ground-level parking spaces. Access to public transport is immediate as the six acre Horgan’s Quay campus is adjacent to Kent station and just across the river from the main bus terminus.

While Clarendon/BAM have built two office blocks (the second has not been finished out internally as the office market has not recovered post-covid) as part of a €160m mixed-use development, on land leased for 300 years from CIE, the residential element had stalled due to rising construction costs and a growing viability gap between what apartments cost to build and what they sell for on the open market. However with LDA backing, it’s back on track.

Under the LDA Project Tosaigh process, the agency agrees to forward purchase the unbuilt homes, entering into a contract to acquire them, with payment on completion.

While the LDA has told the Irish Examiner that the bulk of the Horgan’s Quay apartments will be made available at cost rental – at least 25% below the local market rate – Clarendon Properties has previously said it hoped to sell c 100 units to owner/occupiers under the Croí Cónaithe (cities) scheme, designed to encourage city living. Croí Cónaithe funding is contingent on Clarendon/BAM reaching agreement with the government’s Housing Agency. Ronan Downing, development director of Clarendon Properties, previously told the Irish Examiner that "first time buyers will be very much the target...you're talking €340,000 upwards".

Under the Croí Cónaithe scheme, the agency would cover the "viability gap" with the aim of funding support to feed through in reduced costs to the home-buyers. The maximum funding anticipated for each apartment is €144,000 (inclusive of VAT).

At Horgan’s Quay, piling work has taken place, as well as pouring of concrete slabs for the ground floor residential element. When completed, the stepped residential block will wrap around three sides of a raised courtyard with the former Station Master’s house as its centrepiece. The Station Master’s House is one of three legacy railway buildings on the Horgan’s Quay site whose futures are now assured following extensive conservation and restoration works.

Riverside building activity is not confined to Horgan’s Quay. Across the River Lee, the long-standing R&H grain silos have been demolished at the start of a process that will see a €350m mixed-use development along Kennedy Quay by O’Callaghan Properties. OCP also has plans to build 1,325 apartments on the 32-acre Gouldings Fertiliser site on nearby Centre Park Road/Monaghan Road, once Gouldings is cleared to move its operations downstream to Marino Point.

Separately the development of the Cork Docklands Framework Masterplan is ongoing and due to be launched later this year. It will align with Port of Cork plans to shift their operations downstream, freeing up land in the Tivoli area for housing. Three new city bridges linking north and south docks are part of the plan. The government has committed €353m to the Docklands project,  the largest and most ambitious regeneration plan in the country.