Real Capitol: Site bought in Cork for €60m to sell for €6m

Billed as Cork City’s "last great retail site of note", a plot of more than half an acre on St Patrick’s St and Grand Parade — including the Capitol Cinema site and Central Shoe Stores — goes for sale next week.

Nama has instructed the Cork office of international agents Savills to offer the 0.65-acre site for redevelopment, just as demand for new retail operators starts to pick up on recession- hit St Patrick’s Street.

The impressively-sized bloc had cost an estimated €60m to €70m to assemble over a number of years, in a spending splurge spearheaded by developer Joe O’Donovan’s company Padlake, but it has remained largely unoccupied and also part derelict over the past eight years.