The €45.6m purchase of the John Cleary Developments’ Capitol development in Cork city by a German pension fund “is a major confidence boost for the city” and a positive omen for new development, according to Goodbody investment analyst Colm Lauder.

THE €45.6 million purchase of the John Cleary Developments’ Capitol development in Cork city by a German pension fund “is a major confidence boost for the city” and a positive omen for new development, according to Goodbody investment analyst Colm Lauder.

PROPERTY fund IPUT, with some €2bn in investments and which celebrates 50 years in the investment game this year, is seeking to offload three Cork city centre retail investments at the western end of Patrick Street, guiding €9.5 million, or a c 6.15% yield.

AN investment with an annual rental income just shy of €90,000, with most of it coming from a bookies as ground floor tenant, is up for sale, guiding at €1.25m.

A 158,000 sq ft retail park anchored by Woodies with six other tenants, and two undeveloped other sites, comes to market this week in a Tipperary town due 300 new tech job, guiding €2.6 million, which is well below build/replacement costs.

The classically styled limestone building on Cork city’s historical Coal Quay, occupied by the successful restaurant and bar the Cornstore, has been put up for sale as an invesment.

A warehouse building with other potential higher-end uses in Cork city’s western suburbs, close to third-level college CIT, has had a price slash, so that now it can be bought for one third the cost of comparable construction.

STRONG, five-yearly rental increases, with the next hike due in summer, 2016, underpin the attractiveness of a bank building investment, in Cork’s redeveloped Ballincollig Town Centre.

ONE of Ireland’s top ten accountancy firms, Moore Stephens Nathans, is to sell its Cork HQ — a former Bank of Ireland premises on the South Mall — on a new 12-year lease and at a rent of €180,000 pa.

Two former Cork City sites, associated with boom-time purchases involving Oyster Developments, are being brought to market by Savills.

A DEAL worth around €16m has been reached on the first bank/receiver sale of an entire apartment and retail scheme in Cork, at suburban Dennehy’s Cross.

THE former Nemo Rangers site, easily developed and in a cracking inner-suburban setting in Cork City, was expensively acquired by the Fleming Group, and is now for sale for its receivers.

THE former Lovetts’ Restaurant in Cork City’s suburbs is back for sale as a development opportunity with planning for 19 units: it is priced at €500,000 with Savills agents, Isobel O’Regan and Sam Daunt.

The former St Patrick’s Marymount Hospice on Wellington Road in Cork looks set to be taken over by Griffith College.

Ownership of the historic Parknasilla Hotel on the Ring of Kerry was due to change this week, with the overseas buyer behind the €10m-plus purchase, represented in Kenmare by DreamIreland businessman Tony Daly.

BOTH the Parknasilla Hotel and the Cork International Airport Hotel have overseas buyers, the first in legals, the second sold to Phillips Hotels Ltd for approximately €5m. So Savills’ successful run of sales shows it’s not just the Dublin hotel market (where the 500 bed Burlington’s selling for €70 m to the private equity group Blackstone) that’s attracting investors.

The Ring of Kerry gem-set hotel Parkna-silla, on 500 acres and with 62 lodges and villas, has been put up for sale for €10m.

THE planned sale of a 140-year-old hospital will help fund the move to a new €55 million hospice facility, west of Cork city.

WHAT will become of Villa Franca?

Tommy Barker, Property Editor