Half-price rent deal on student apartments in Cork locked in for 10 years

Deal negotiated on 16 units in the €25m 280-bed Coleman Court development on North Main Street will remain in place until the academic year starting in September 2033, Cork City Council confirmed

Coleman Court on North Main Street: Cork City Council’s assistant chief executive, Brian Geaney, said under the terms of the disposal, 16 bed spaces in eight twin rooms in the complex were offered to eligible students. Picture: Larry Cummins 

A half-price rent deal on 16 beds in Cork’s newest student apartment complex has been locked in for a decade.

City officials confirmed the preferential rent deal they negotiated on the specified units in the €25m 280-bed Coleman Court development on North Main Street will remain in place until the academic year starting in September 2033.

The detail is contained in response to a question from Cllr Sean Martin at the March meeting of Cork City Council.

Mr Martin sought an update on preferential rents charged to eligible students under the terms of the council's disposal almost three years ago of the site at 96 North Main Street, which has since been redeveloped as the Coleman Court student apartment complex.

The council’s assistant chief executive, Brian Geaney, said under the terms of the disposal, 16 bed spaces in eight twin rooms in the complex were offered to eligible students.

“Offers to students are made via the accommodation teams at University College Cork and Munster Technological University, who are very well placed to be able to identify eligible students in need,” he said.

“These places were offered at a net rate of €100 per bed space per week inclusive of all services, heat and light, refuse etc [discounted from €200 per bed space].

“These arrangements will continue until the 2033/2034 academic year and in line with the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices.”

The site at 96 North Main Street was derelict and in public ownership when city councillors voted in July 2021 to dispose of its leasehold interest in it to Pantherlee Ltd for €100,000 — half its then current market value. The disposal price had been agreed two years previously.

The vote to dispose followed the granting of planning permission in late 2020 to a linked company, BMOR Developments Ltd, for a 280-bed student apartment development on sites which included the former Munster Furniture Store site, gutted by fire in 2008, the former Molloy's Footwear site at 92 North Main Street, and a site at number 95, which had also been long-time derelict.

Councillors were told in July 2021 the €100,000 disposal represented the value of the site when the council granted the developers consent to include number 96 in their planning application for the student apartments, but that a recent independent valuation, which took into account the grant of planning, gave a market value of €200,000.

But councillors were also told that about the preferential rent deal, and that the units had a greater floor area than the original floor area of the previous premises at number 96.

They were also told the rent deal represented a further saving well above the €100,000 uplift value over the 10-years.