Viability issues hampering delivery of apartments in Cork City 

Concerns are in spite of plans for a further 700 apartments on former dairy site

The former CMP Dairy at Tramore Road in Cork City has been earmarked for 706 apartments. Picture: Denis Scannell

Viability issues are still hampering the delivery of private apartments in Cork City despite the emergence of plans yesterday for more than 700 apartments on a former dairy site on the city's southside.

The warning from Cork Chamber follows news that Watfore, the property management and development subsidiary of agri-food giant Dairygold, has applied to Bórd Pleanála for a pre-application consultation on its plans for 706 apartments and a childcare facility on the former CMP dairy site on the Kinsale Road.

The 3.18-hectare Creamfields site, opposite Musgrave Park, closed in 2005 after 50 years of liquid milk production. It has lain vacant since but has occasionally hosted funfairs.

News of the residential plan comes just months after another developer abandoned plans for a 25-storey 201-unit residential tower in the city’s south docklands, citing viability issues.

While several student apartment schemes have been built or approved in the city, Cork Chamber has pointed out that no new private apartment schemes of scale have been completed in the city since 2008.

Chamber CEO Conor Healy said it's positive to see this residential plan advance.

“But the affordability and viability issues remain for those types of locations regardless of the ability of certain schemes, which may have site-specific advantages, to move ahead,” he said.

Glenveagh, which has planning for 1,000-units in its Marina Quarter scheme on the former Ford distribution site, says it’s still not in a position to confirm when construction will start.

Dairygold had been exploring various options to develop the former dairy site but said it had been restricted by its ‘light industry’ zoning.

It was rezoned in 2019 to ‘residential, local services and institutional uses’.

The public are not allowed to participate in the pre-application consultation phase but can make submissions if and when a formal application is made under the strategic housing developments
process.

A decision from the bórd on whether the documents provided by Watfore constitute a reasonable basis for a formal strategic housing developments
planning application is due by mid-October.