Fire-hit Cork hotel set to be included on derelict sites register

Sunset Ridge Hotel. The owners of sites on the register are liable for the derelict sites levy — 7% of the market value of the site annually.

A former hotel which was targeted in a suspected arson attack is being lined up for inclusion on Cork’s derelict sites register.

Officials in Cork City Council had already identified the former Sunset Ridge Hotel site in Killeens for inspection and consideration as a derelict site well before Wednesday night’s fire.

A site inspection took place some time ago and a report has been prepared but the formal move to actually place it on the register is expected to happen soon.

The owners of sites on the register are liable for the derelict sites levy — 7% of the market value of the site annually.

Two units of the Cork City Fire Brigade and a water tanker responded to the incident at the former Sunset Ridge Hotel in Killeens.

Firefighters were called to the former hotel site near Blarney at around 10.30pm on Wednesday.

Two units of the Cork City Fire Brigade and a water tanker responded and found a blaze inside the boarded up building.

They brought it under control quickly. While investigations are underway to establish the cause of the blaze, there are suspicions it was started deliberately.

Firefighters have been called to a number of smaller fires at the site in recent months.

Local public representatives said they have genuine concerns that it could happen again unless urgent action is taken, and they pointed to the destruction of the former John Barleycorn Hotel in Riverstown, Glanmire in August 2006, in a suspected arson attack.

Fine Gael Cllr Damian Boylan said the owners should immediately secure the site, and then demolish what has become an eyesore building.

“They should immediately secure the site, then level the building, and then either develop the site, sell it for development, or hand it back to the city council and the community, and we will work with the community to make the area a focal point for the Killeens community," he said. 

'Accident waiting to happen'

Local Independent Cllr Ken O’Flynn said the time has come for the council to step in.

“It was and is an accident waiting to happen. The council needs to take responsibility and use the powers it has under the Derelict Sites Act.”

Conditional planning was granted by Cork County Council in 2011 to the hotel’s former owners for the demolition of the hotel building and other structures and for the construction of a mixed-use development, with a number of retail and office units, a pub and a restaurant, with 143 car parking spaces.

The project never happened and the planning permission expired in 2016.

The site was sold about two years ago and has fallen derelict.