Owner has a fifth go at redeveloping derelict Blackpool building 

The derelict site is near Broad Lane, Blackpool, Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane.

The owner of one of Cork’s most enduring derelict buildings has lodged yet another planning application in a bid to develop apartments on the site.

Businessman Kieran O’Shea owns the derelict warehouse at 11 Broad Lane, in Blackpool, which has been on the city’s derelict sites register for almost 20 years.

He has tried several times over the last two decades to secure planning for apartments on the site immediately adjacent to an inner city residential development, with planning applications he lodged in 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2020, all refused.

While there has been no objection to the demolition of the derelict warehouse, planners have, at various times, raised concerns about the height and massing of the proposed structure, and raised concerns about its potential impact on neighbouring properties.

2021 application

The most recent planning application, lodged in 2021, was finally approved but only on the condition that the top floor be omitted.

Mr O'Shea sought to appeal that condition to An Bord Pleanála but the appeal was deemed invalid because it missed the appeals deadline by just one day.

The site has remained derelict.

The property is a mid-19th-century building which was formerly a tenement known locally as The Castle. Locals say it could have been home to up to 16 families at the time.

Accessed off Great William O'Brien St, it fronts onto O'Mahony Square in the heart of Blackpool, and is just a few minutes walk to the city centre.

In previous planning reports, planners have described the site as 'awkward' with an existing building that has 'an unusual relationship with adjoining residences'.

The 170-square metre building is 10.5m high, with a pitched roof and a lower two-storey return, and set in an established residential area, which planners described as having a “tight urban grain”, with a lower two-storey terrace adjoining it to the south and north, and Seminary Court estate, a series of terraced homes, located on an elevated site to the west.

In previous planning reports, planners have described the site as "awkward" with an existing building that has “an unusual relationship with adjoining residences” but stressed that refurbishment of this site "is important to achieve".

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According to the latest planning application, Mr O’Shea is seeking permission from Cork City Council for the demolition of the existing derelict building and the construction of four apartments in a new four-storey block, with the top floor partially set back on the southern and eastern elevations.

Several apartment developments are currently underway in the Blackpool area, with the population of the urban village expected to double over the coming years.