Sale of idle landbank to pave way for healthcare centre

A publicly owned landbank which has lain idle for six years is finally set to be sold, paving the way for the development of a primary healthcare centre.

Cork’s City councillors will be asked next Monday night to approve the disposal by private treaty of the 2.83-acre site at Deanrock in Togher to Kieran Coughlan and his business partner Claire Riordan for €450,000.

The duo were involved in the development of the huge Blackrock Hall primary healthcare centre near the Eden development in Blackrock.

It is hoped the Deanrock deal, if approved, will pave the way for the creation of a mixed-use development, including residential units, as well as a primary health care centre for the Togher area.

Several conditions have been attached to the sale, including that a planning application be lodged within three months of the conclusion of the deal, that construction would start within six months of the grant of planning, and that the entire development should be substantially complete two years later.

News of the proposed sale was brought to councillors at a housing functional committee meeting last night.

City manager Tim Lucey told them that the sale of site by public tender, which was advertised in 2011, proved inconclusive by 2012.

He said the matter was revisited to determine the best way to deliver a primary healthcare centre on the site, and it was deemed that a sale of the site by private treaty was the best way forward.

The matter will now be brought before next Monday’s full council meeting.

It is hoped the sale, if sanctioned, will bring to an end the long-running saga over the site. It has lain idle since 2007 when the council demolished 108 “eyesore” 1970s-built NBA flats on the site and rehoused up to 400 residents.