Transport ‘hub’ plan for derelict city docklands site
Manor Park Homes intends to apply to Cork City Council early next week for permission to build up to 300 luxury apartments in blocks of varying heights, plus a boardwalk, on part of the 14-acre Horgan’s Quay site owned by CIÉ.
Iarnród Éireann also confirmed that in spring next year it will lodge a planning application to revamp Kent Station, reorientate it to face the River Lee and develop a major transport interchange at the heart of the north docklands site.
The Manor Park Homes application is on a two-acre development plot at the Water Street end of the site.
While movement on the site has been long-awaited, it is not clear how city planners will view the two- phase approach to development.
City manager Joe Gavin had insisted the entire site should be developed as a single project.
A council master-plan for the north docklands specifies that a 5,000-seat conference centre be included.
Manor Park Homes was unavailable for comment and it is not clear whether such a facility is included in the company’s plans.
As well as apartments, the project will comprise 3,000 square metres of commercial space at ground-floor level, including retail, showroom uses, leisure and crèche facilities.
CIÉ has signed a licensing agreement with the developers and will benefit financially from the sale of the apartments. The company will have an income stream from any business rents paid on the site.
Manor Park Homes will also apply for permission to build a new road from the western end of the site linking Railway Street/Alfred Street back onto Penrose Quay to service the planned transport hub around Kent Station.
It will provide full integration between Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann services, a CIÉ spokesman said.
“The new Midleton line due to open in 2008, the new hourly train service between Cork and Dublin from January 2007, expanded commuter services on other routes and expansion in Bus Éireann services will transform the new facility into the nerve centre for transport in the south,” he said.
The Horgan’s Quay site was at the centre of a major political row in the mid 1990s.
Following his claims of “cosy cartels”, former Fine Gael Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications Michael Lowry blocked CIÉ’s attempted sale of the land in 1995 to developer Owen O’Callaghan, a Fianna Fáil supporter, who planned to develop a massive 800-job technology park on the site.
