A Cork City office building is up for sale with a €16m price tag.

AN office building on Cork City’s South Mall with further rental uplift scope has sold within months of going to the open market, and has fetched about 25% over its guide price, after competitive bidding.

The former St Kevin’s Asylum, and over 14 acres of zoned land, has finally been placed on the market for sale by the HSE, with a €2.95 million price guide via agents Lisney, who say it has clear residential development potential.

A number of new office occupiers and sale deals are coming to an end-of-year close in the heart of Cork city, at Lapps Quay, at City Quarter, and at the Elysian, where a new walk-in medical clinic is set to open next month and where a new restaurant letting is agreed. Plus there’s 12,000 sq ft of offices at the Elysian under active negotiation via Lisney.

A ready-to-build residential site within a few minutes walk of EMC/Dell in Cork’s Killumney and three miles from Ballincollig has come to market, where average cost per ‘stand’ to build on is running at €55,000. It equates to €563,000 per acre.

A private, low-key Irish investment company has seen off strong local, national and international bidding interest to acquire two Cork office investments, one let to Apple, the other to Trend Micro, in a deal worth close to €8 million.

LEADING Irish investment and hotel asset owners Tetrarch Capital plans two Cork city centre hotels in side-by-side 19th century stone warehouse building being sold by Cork City Council, who had acquired them from Nama.

THE chance to have Apple as a tenant in a Cork investment property sale will catch the eye and engage the interest of strong investors nationwide — as will the promised 10.65% net initial yield on offer in the case of two building sales valued at €7.25 million.

The location of two, 19th century stone warehouse buildings (plus an investment property currently let out as an adult shop,) on a central 0.42 of a Cork city centre acre put up for imaginative redevelopment is what underpins an asking price close to €2m, for the property and site’s owners and vendors, Cork City Council.

IT’s all about the timing — and the agents offering a shopping centre developed almost a decade ago and largely still unlet are hoping the time is right for a swoop, offering a 9% return, on a €1.9m sale, of a sizeable north Cork town centre that cost a reported €20m to deliver.

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. 

It is understood that the distinctive office block at No 1 South Mall, Cork, has now gone sale agreed with agent, Lisney. This unique building in the heart of Cork’s business district was offered for sale in March of this year on behalf of receiver Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton.

CORK City Council looks set to make a small profit on its plans to sell an historic and elegant bank branch, which it bought just over two years ago, thanks to municipal public realm investments and private developments also on the doorstep of 1 Lapps Quay.

Commercial opportunities are radiating outward from Cork’s centre.

LONG term secure rental of almost €1.5 million per annum (and scope to grow it further) is the lure at Limerick’s Ennis Road Retail Park.

CORK’S City centre office supply looks set to take a quantum leap forward along its quays, hot on the heels of the success of the One Albert Quay development by John Cleary Developments.

A REVAMP of the long-established Savoy Shopping Centre may be on the cards, following the circa €2m purchase of the former Quills clothes shop, at nos 106/107 Patrick Street, by the Savoy’s owners, the Clarendon Group.

A REVAMP of the long-established Savoy Shopping Centre may be on the cards, following the circa €2m purchase of the former Quills clothes shop, at nos 106/107 Patrick Street, by the Savoy’s owners, the Clarendon Group.

There’s sheer, distinctive profile and a unique setting at No 46 Grand Parade — a period Leeside building linking Cork city centre and its South Mall to the proposed new events centre on South Main Street.

Several strategic investment projects worth almost €500m will transform Cork City and generate thousands of jobs over the next few years, the city’s business leaders were told last night.

AS IRELAND’S property investment market returned to new highs with 40% overall Y-O-Y returns for the final quarter of 2014, Cork city’s property investment market has also been tracked and benchmarked internationally for the first time ever.

A MAJOR UK-based retail expo comes to Dublin next month for the first time, as the Irish retail market shows signs of recovery from the economic slump.

GLOBAL coffee giant, Starbucks, is to open its first Cork City centre store, at no 39 Princes Street, a few doors away from the famed English Market.

JUST sold for year’s end, after 40 inquiries and a competitive tender process for a receiver, is the Kinsale Road Business Park in Cork - by the city’s busiest traffic junction, the Kinsale Road Roundabout, passed by 85,000 cars a day.

Three Munster shopping centres are among five so-called ‘provincial shopping centres’ dubbed the Harvest Portfolio, up for sale promising a nine per cent return on a €50million investment.

IT’S A Dealz, says East Cork estate agent Miah McGrath, holding out the prospect of a 10% return on a Midleton town centre investment, guided at €1.3 million, and with €140,000 a year income stream.

Michael Noonan announced a 40c increase in the price of an old reliable — at the same time 260km away, a muffled groan went up in the Old Reliable.

AGENTS Lisney bring a second Patrick Street, Cork City, retail building for sale this month as an investment, seeking offers of €750,000 for No 121, opposite the Merchant’s Quay Shopping Centre and Marks & Spencers.

Recently vacated by clothes retailer Quills, nos 106/107 Patrick Street, Cork City, are selling for €1.95m.

The Kinsale Road Business Park which is largely let, has a current rental income of €420,000, representing a c 11.5% net initial yield to investors.

A MODERN mixed-use investment building in Cork’s Carrigaline has been sold for around €2 million, acquired by an Irish investor via a competitive bid process.

A mixed-use development site with completed first phase in West Cork’s top tourist hub of Clonakilty is for sale with agents Lisney for €1.2m.

The Ennis Book Club Festival (March 7-9) is a reader’s delight. “Other literary festivals are about writing skills and getting published. Our workshops are different. One of our really popular events is called ‘Ten Books You Should Read’,” says chairperson, Ciana Campbell.

Confidence in investment recovery in the past year is evident in the €3m-plus sale to Norwegian buyers of a Bank of Ireland bank branch in Cork’s Wilton suburb.

One of Cork city’s oldest hotels, the Victoria Hotel on St Patrick Street, is for sale by tender in April.

BUSINESS or private?

SERVICING an online gaming company that does $3.5bn of annual transactions has made jobs growth at Cork IT specialist Xanadu a one-way bet.

An Aldi store is being proposed for the ground floor of Ireland’s tallest building, the Elysian, next door to Cork City Hall.