Sex shop closure opens new opportunities in Cork city
Store For Is Playblue, Cork Rent Lane, Lisney With To 2 Carey's Home Up Sale For Adult Merical, Or City Former
A TWO storey retail investment property in Cork city’s historic Huguenot Quarter is on the market for rent or for sale following the departure of adult sex store, Playblue.ie.
No 2 Carey’s Lane, just off St Patrick's Street, is available to buy for €300,000 or to rent at a cost of €25,000 per annum.
So far enquiries have been mainly with a view to leasing the building.
“We’ve had about half a dozen enquiries so far, all around renting, with nail bars and coffee shops featuring,” said Lisney commercial agent Mark Fannon.
The two-storey premises, which includes a self-contained ground floor retail unit and overhead ancillary storage, is on a well-utilized pedestrian laneway, linking St Patrick’s St to Paul St Plaza, with the latter closer to the property. It had been occupied since 2019 by Playblue, whose founder, Richie Cullen, started the business after returning from Australia about a decade ago. The shop still has a bricks-and-mortar presence in Dublin’s Tallaght, but most of its trade is online. Playblue vacated its Cork store last August. The premises had been let on a 10-year lease to Playblue, with a tenant-only break option at the end of year five.
Carey's Lane is a busy throughway that leads to Paul St Shopping Centre and neighbouring occupiers include Dukes Coffee Company, Paul Street Shopping Centre, Amicus Restaurant and the recently sold former JD Weatherspoon bar and restaurant, the Linen Weaver, reported in these pages last month as having been bought by Cork business man Tom Cross. Mr Cross currently owns The Anglers bar and restaurant at Carrigrohane, and the Turners Cross Tavern in Cork’s southside suburbs and has invested considerably in both since buying them. The Linen Weaver was put up for sale with a €2.25m guide, as part of a €10m portfolio sell-off by UK licensed trade giant Wetherspoon.
Lisney Commercial is expecting strong interest in No 2 Carey’s Lane, which extends to 831 sq ft. The property is on the eastern side of the lane, and runs parallel to French Church St. Other nearby occupiers include Nandos, Superdry, Dubray Books and Cork Coffee Roasters.
Mark Fannon: mfannon@lisney.com or Szymon Slowiak: sslowiak@lisney.com Tel: Lisney: 021 427 5079.
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