Cork is on the up with €400m worth of tall building developments proposed for the city in the next few years, writes Kevin O’Neill

Investment worth a further €10m is set to flow into Cork’s Blarney Business Park, in a significant speculative drive forward by the park’s new owners, JCD Group.

A new office development in the heart of Cork's docklands is aiming to become Ireland's greenest building.

Memories of Castlehaven’s 1994 Cork SFC county final win over arch rivals O’Donovan Rossa are still fresh in the participants’ minds.

Former All-Ireland winners John Cleary and Tony Davis believe Cork have nothing to lose heading into this year’s Super 8s on the back of a comprehensive victory over Laois.

Cork’s skyline is set to reach new heights with the country’s tallest building planned for the city’s docklands.

A 25-storey apartment tower is proposed for a Cork city centre site on Albert Quay.

The Cork footballers need to get “tough upstairs”, according to captain Ian Maguire, who believes the team too easily collapsed in recent years when hitting a sticky patch during games.

The tallest office building so far developed in Cork City, Penrose Dock next to Kent Rail Station at up to nine storeys, is setting an even more impressive record: its first core and lift shaft is up to full height, less than a year after the €125m project on the city’s north quays first applied for planning permission.

Former Brighton & Hove Albion player Dessie Hutchinson nailed a late free from 40 metres as Gailltir edged An Rinn 1-5 to 1-4 on a miserable Sunday afternoon in Kill.

Cork City retailers need to tweak their offering to capitalise on the arrival of thousands of new workers, according to one of the developers leading the multimillion-euro regeneration of the docklands.

One of Cork’s most prolific developers has said the city will be a “very vibrant place” within the next 12-18 months.

Developers JCD have made an off-market multi-million euro swoop on the Cork city Albert Quay site occupied for the past 50 years by family-owned Carey Tools, including the Sextant bar which was subsequently acquired by the Carey family.

The site of one of Europe’s once-great Roman/Turkish baths and hydrotherapy complexes, the Hydro in Tower, Blarney — near the world-renowned Blarney Castle which attracts nearly 500,000 visitors a year — has been earmarked for a €35m nursing home and associated house development.

The regeneration of Cork’s docklands has stepped up another gear with work underway on a €125m office block on the northern quays which will be able to accommodate more than 2,250 workers by mid-2020.

When Ephie Fitzgerald agreed to take on the job of Cork ladies football manager in January of 2016, he had more than one person tell him the role was “a poisoned chalice”.

A major planning approval this week brings to €300m the value of development set to flow onto Cork City’s north quays, by CIÉ’s Kent railway station.

Plans for what could be the tallest building in Ireland, near Cork’s Mahon Point, have been submitted to An Bord Pleanála.

A ‘tech corridor’ is emerging on Cork City’s venerable South Mall — the historic commercial boulevard is now to be bookended at the iconic 97 South Mall by fast-growing company Eventbrite, who may employ up to 100 employees there over the next few years.

Cork is set become a big data hub following confirmation that a €200m data centre campus will begin operations on the outskirts of the city next year.

Facebook has lodged planning documents to facilitate its use of The Capitol offices development in the centre of Cork city.

The first store in the newly-developed €50m retail and office complex at the old Capitol Cineplex site in Cork opened its doors yesterday — and will inject new life into one of the city centre’s most historic areas, according to leading business figures in the city.

The prospect of Cork toasting the newly- developed Páirc Uí Chaoimh with appearances there in both Munster senior finals is a prime motivator for the county’s footballers and hurlers, says Teddy McCarthy.

American cybersecurity firm AlienVault has become the first tenant to officially open a new office at the €50m old Capitol site in Cork city centre, announcing 50 new jobs to mark the occasion.

Eighty-six-year old Phonsie Clifford crossed the finish line of the 2017 Barringtons Hospital Great Limerick Run, and vowed to take part in this year's Dublin Marathon.

Global 21st-century tech giant Facebook, along with Chinese firm Huawei and US cyber security company Alien Vault, are to keep company with a repolished Cork pearl, the 18th century-founded Oyster Tavern, as the line-up for the city centre’s €50m Capitol shops, office and bar development is confirmed.

2016 was a pivotal year for construction activity in Cork and nationwide, up by 15% for the year ended, while further growth of up to 20% is expected locally and nationally in 2017, say international asset managers and professional advisory firm AECOM.

A Limerick man accused of threatening to kill another man and damaging property more than two years ago has been refused bail by the Special Criminal Court.

Companies considering locating in Cork may be lured by favourable terms to accommodate staff in a new, purpose-delivered, build-to-let apartment investment, as part of a proposed, mixed-used city centre project at Horgan’s Quay.

AS THE very last section of shiny, white Techcrete cladding panels swung into place this week on Cork City’s rapidly-emerging €50m Capitol retail and office complex, a pedestrian passerby on Grand Parade observed “ah, the last piece of the jigsaw”.

Blackrock Business Park, the former Motorola site in Cork’s booming Mahon suburb which last sold when vacated back in 2007 for €22m, has been put back for sale for €11.2m. 

An unauthorised car park in Cork’s tech jobs hub will shut down within days after a bizarre planning situation which saw a local authority initiate an enforcement action against itself.

Cork Chamber launched a major initiative in London last night to showcase opportunities in what will be the second largest English-speaking city in the EU post-Brexit.

The developers behind the €50m regeneration of the landmark Capitol cinema site in Cork City have abandoned plans for a food hall in favour of more retail and office space.

John Cleary has called for immediate action to arrest the “worrying” decline of Cork football over the past four years. The two-time All- Ireland medal winner believes the Cork team has regressed year-on-year since 2012 and says a plan must be formulated to return the county to football’s top table.

Cork 2-19 Dublin 4-9: John Cleary hailed the composure of his leaders as Cork retained their All- Ireland Ladies Football minor A championship crown at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park in Longford yesterday.