Kelleher brothers forging ahead with cost-rental apartments in Blackpool

The government-backed scheme, which will range in height from four to nine storeys, will be a mix of cost rental and social housing, with a roughly 50/50 split. It will include a retail unit at ground floor level.

Under the government’s cost-rental scheme, rents must be a minimum of 25% below local open market values. The initiative is targeted at people who don’t qualify for social housing but who can’t afford the market. Cork city’s first cost-rental scheme opened at Lancaster Gate, on Western Road two years ago, following a collaboration between O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) and approved housing body Clúid.

The Blackpool scheme also involves an AHB, not believed to be Clúid. The development will include 79 one-bed and 35 two-bed apartments. 

Bellmount's directors, brothers Séamus and Pádraig Kelleher, expect the building work to be completed by the end of 2025.

The main contractor has been appointed and the brothers said they hope to break ground at Redforge Road “by late October/early November”.

The Kellerhers acquired the Millfield Service Station site in 2019 and have in recent years submitted a number of planning applications for projects across Cork city, including ambitious proposals for purpose-built student accommodation in the Victoria Cross/Dennehy’s Cross area. While permission has been granted for two of their three schemes in the vicinity, the third has been stuck in An Bord Pleanála’s appeals process since November 2022.

The brothers said this is holding up the entire project as the three sites are adjoining, and “in order for the development to stack up and be cost-efficient" it made sense to conduct the construction work in one go. As it stands, they have permission for a development with 243 bedspaces at the site of Kellehers' Auto Centre in Victoria Cross, as well as permission for 136 bedspaces at the nearby former Kellehers' Tyres service centre. The delay involves the middle site, the former Finbar Galvin motor dealership site between Victoria Cross and Orchard Road, where the brothers are awaiting a decision on plans for 206 student bedspaces since 2022. 

If we don’t get planning [for the Galvin site] we will go ahead anyway, but it would be more cost effective for us to go in all together”, Pádraig said. 

Bellmount Developments has a number of smaller projects in the pipeline also, including plans for circa 18 apartments at 40-41 Pope’s Quay/2 Ferry Lane, in a 17,000 sq ft development ranging from three to six storeys. 

The scheme would include mainly one and two bed apartments, as well as a ground floor retail/cafe unit. Nearby, at 60-61 Shandon St/Farren’s Quay, Bellmount has applied for permission to build nine apartments. Both of these projects are at “request for information” stage. The brothers said they’ve been working with Cork City Council to ensure the schemes are sympathetic to the wider area. They described their planning applications as “Brown Thomas” applications in light of the amount of money spent on them. Séamus said buildings in need of regeneration is the asset class they focus on.

While Séamus has a background in construction and Pádraig studied geology, both have had a strong grounding in business. At one point, they ran 12 tyre shops, now reduced to two, as they switched focus to development opportunities. They also ran a recycling business with Bord na Móna which they said was “the fourth largest in the country”.

“In the meantime we were strategically picking up property as we were going along, stuff that was of very little value at the time, but we had faith that things would eventually recover, and we had age on our side,” Pádraig said.

Their business acumen wasn't licked off the ground: their two grandmothers were well-known business women. One was Mallow woman Eileen (Eily) Bolster McAuliffe who came to Cork City to train as a bookkeeper in Skerries in the 1950s, and who later opened a furniture store in Perry St. Her grandsons said she at one time "ran" Ballymacmoy House, the ancestral home of the Hennessy [Cognac] family. 

Their grandmother on the paternal side, Hansie Kelleher, was a businesswoman from Ballymakeera, who ran a general store with her husband Paddy Kelleher.

The brothers said they have further plans for development in the city, and would like to get involved in the development of the docklands, "the largest brownfield site in Europe".

"Cork is in a unique position in that it has the advantage of seeing what happened in other cities in terms of urban sprawl, and can learn from that. We're very positive about the docklands," they said.