Carey Tool Hire move to new site clears way for 25-storey apartment tower on Cork city quays
Uprooting from a city quayside site after six decades will be a pleasant wrench for a Cork business – in return for moving, Carey Tool Hire is getting a brand new building, on a three-acre Ring Road site, passed by up to 100,000 cars a day, plus a multi-million euro site sale windfall.
Plans for the 25-storey, 201-apartment tower, plaza and restored railway terminus building on Cork city’s Albert Quay/Albert Street and Albert Road have taken a stride forward with the confirmation of a replacement South Ring Road property for the quay site’s long-term occupier, Carey Tool Hire, who’ve been trading on the quays since 1961.
Cork family-owned company Carey Tool Hire now looks set to mark its 60th birthday with a relocation from the city’s quays to a high profile, replacement site and new-build property right by the Kinsale Road roundabout and N40 ring road flyover. It’s part of a deal agreed with John Cleary Developments (JCD), who got planning for a site at Blackash, Kinsale Road which JCD had bought two years ago.
Having previously been refused planning for a 60,000 sq ft logistics/distribution building on the eyesore and currently boggy Blackash site at the roundabout end of the South Link Road, right next to the new municipal Tramore Valley Park, JCD successfully got a planning grant on a revised application just prior to Christmas 2020 for a building to be constructed in two phases, and which will be owned by Carey Tool Hire.
It’s an efficient and effective ‘hand in glove’ deal for both parties, as JCD was the buyer of the Carey Tool Hire and former Sextant bar property from the Carey family two years ago, in an off-market deal valued back then at an unconfirmed €7-€8 million.
JCD are currently in the final leg of the planning process, via a Strategic Housing Development (SHD) application, for a 25-storey tower of 201 apartments, for the Build to Rent market on the Carey site.
Bord Pleanála are due to make a decision on that ambitious south docks project by February 26: designed by an international team headed by Henry J Lyons architects, it includes 93 one-bed units, a plaza and restoration of an old railway station terminus and ticket station, for bar/restaurant use.
Bookended by sizeable office developments, the fully occupied JCD One Albert Quay office built on the City Hall side, and by O’Callaghan Properties’ Navigation Square on the other which is anchored by Clearsteam, the proposed JCD tower is one of several ‘Build to Rent’ apartment schemes in the offing in the quays’ vicinity.
If successful in planning, it could be the first apartment development of any scale delivered in Cork in more than 12 years.
Long-time business occupiers at Albert Quay, Carey Tool Hire have outlets in Ballincollig, Cork and in Ennis Co Clare and are to move to 20,750 sq ft in their new building on the South City Link Road, when constructed, with further 26,350 sq ft allowed in a second phase.
Ken Carey of Carey Tools said they were “delighted to confirm our relocation to our new state of the art premises at the Kinsale Road Roundabout. A key consideration to our decision to move here was the site’s accessibility and its high-profile location on the main entrance route to the city. It is extremely important for us to be in a location which is convenient for our clients. Construction will start in March with an occupation date of December 2020.”
Their Kinsale Road roundabout site has a profile setting, just below the flyover with traffic running at 85,000-100,000 cars a day passing by. Initially targeted as a HQ office site by Kerry Foods, it was once offered for sale for €9m, and went back to market in 2017 with an €800,000 guide price. It’s understood to have been bought by JCD/Progressive Construction for about €600,000, or c €200,000 an acre.
www.jcdgroup.ie
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