Regeneration of derelict office block in Cork City wins social housing accolade

The Springville House building on the Blackrock Road has 31 apartments and four one-bedroom single-storey houses

The groundbreaking office-to-residential conversion of Springville House on the Old Blackrock Road in Cork City was the first such scheme in Cork, one of the first such schemes in the country, and was hailed at its official opening by Finance Minister Michael McGrath last September as a pioneering response to Ireland’s housing crisis which provides a template for use nationwide.

The conversion of a derelict 1960s-built office block in Cork City into 35 new right-sizing homes for older people has been named social housing project of the year.

Cork City Council’s innovative regeneration of the Springville House building on the Blackrock Road, which is now managed by the Tuath housing association, scooped the top award in its category having previously won a Local Government Excellence Award in the urban revival category.

It is also shortlisted in its category in the Irish Construction Excellence Awards which are due to be announced in May.

It was the first commercial office to residential conversion scheme in Cork, one of the first such schemes in the country, and was hailed at its official opening by Finance Minister Michael McGrath last September as a pioneering response to Ireland’s housing crisis which provides a template for use nationwide.

The council’s assistant chief executive, Brian Geaney, said the development is a prime example of successful collaboration between the local authority and a housing agency and represents an innovative response to the provision of housing.

“This office-to-residential project, in the heart of the city, has resulted in the conversion of a derelict office building into 35 new A-rated homes for those looking to ‘right-size’ to a home that meets their changing needs and requirements whilst freeing up existing properties for younger families,” he said.

And he said while the council is open to exploring similar regeneration options whenever and wherever such development opportunities may arise, no similar project is in the pipeline at the moment.

The 17,600 sq ft former office block, in an area where private homes have sold for €1m, once served as the former headquarters of Pettit Consulting Engineers before being acquired by Mott McDonald in 2006.

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Two separate attempts to secure planning for homes on the site were unsuccessful before the property was acquired by MMD Construction, which then worked with the city council and Tuath Housing on a social housing plan for the site.

In 2019, city councillors approved an amended Part 8 plan to adapt and extend the building, and then change its use to facilitate residential development.

To a design by Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, MMD Construction undertook a complete retrofit and re-purposing of the structure and built 31 high-quality, energy-efficient A-rated apartments within the fabric of the existing building — 13 two-bedroom apartments and 18 one-bedroom apartments — with four one-bedroom single-storey houses also built on the site.

The project was designed specifically for people aged 60 and over who want to avail of the city council’s voluntary “right-sizing” initiative, which encourages people in the age bracket to move to more suitably sized homes, thereby freeing up their former existing properties for younger families.

Tuath said its success is attributed to “its clear purpose and the identification of end-users" from the very start of the project. It was funded with a loan from the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) and Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding from the Department of Housing.