Prime site to fetch €12,000 an acre
As reported here two weeks ago, the integrated golf resort is being eyed up by a number of buying groups/consortia, one of which is believed to include farmer buyers.
CBRE, however, are at pains to point out that they are dealing with the sale on a ‘going concern’ basis.
“We’re in active negotiation with certain bidders with the intention of selling as a going concern,” says Paul Collins of CBRE. “And we’re now offering the property as a single lot. We’re guiding at €3.9m and are confident we’ll exceed that.”
Collins would give no indication of whom his ‘preferred buyer’ is, but gave the impression that the hotel and golf resort’s top bidder might continue to operate the resort at Cloghphilip on the outskirts of Tower village as an hotel and golf course, and not as a nursing home/farmland combination which had been rumoured in recent weeks.
The fact that local farmers would consider the extra cost involved in turning golf grounds to pasture land only confirms the demand for land in this area of large dairy enterprises.
So the news of a 62-acre sale adjoining the course may prove fortunate.
This impressive 62-acre non-residential sale at Killeen, Vicarstown, had a long boundary directly onto the Blarney Golf Resort. This is an executor’s sale, brought to the market by Joe McCarthy of Irish and European.
And, when compared to the adjoining lands, it offers readily available, working farmland for buyers, without the long drawn-out investment involved in taking on a golf course.
Given demand and a lack of available land for expansionist dairy men, agent Joe McCarthy’s guide price of about €12,000 per acre does not seem an unduly optimistic asking price.
He is seeking offers in excess of €750,000 for the entire and expects that bids will go north of that figure, considering the quality of the land and the roadside location.
Comprising 62 acres in five divisions, the holding is technically in one block, but divides easily into three lots, all with excellent road frontage. And Joe McCarthy says he’s open to offers in that respect, too.
The land is high, level and well drained, running toward some less productive ground at the lower levels which will need attention.
It bounds the golf resort and the main Kerry road, just a mile from Tower village. It also fronts onto a minor road and here, there are two potential lots with separate laneways, which could operate efficiently as separate units. Paddocked and in well-managed pasture, this is prime agricultural property in a tightly squeezed location.
Its arrival on the market has added an interesting element to the manoeuvres on the hill-top golf course location. And it might take the steam out of one or two bids for the golf course, which cost €25m to build, and was initially floated at €20m but eventually reduced to the current guide price of €3.9m, which brought in a wide trawl of potential buyers, including farmers. The current golf club membership is also believed to be in the fray.
