Grand opportunity close to the centre of things

OPPOSITE ends of the spectrum — having sold Woodlawn in Sunday’s Well for over €5 million in the summer (a new Cork city residential record) estate agent Hugh McPhillips of Marsh’s has another rarity on his books, a total do-er upper, yet one also in the multi-million euro league.

Woodlawn and its gardens was done up to the nth degree, not so Rosenheim, which is set on more than an acre along the Blackrock Road.

Rosenheim is not a pretty picture, but give it a bit more time, love and a lot of money. It has seen out the last 185 years of its history and is hungry for more.

But, what is really being sold is contained in the auctioneering buzz words, ‘potential’ and ‘location’.

Rosenheim was one the first grand-ish homes at the start of Blackrock Road. It has been a family home since the 1960s of the O’Sullivan family, co-owners for many years of Sheehan and Sullivan coal yards.

Dating back to 1822, and associated with the Jacob family from its earliest days, it is a Georgian home of limited stature and height. Originally meant to be a two-storey home, it was instead capped off with just a basement and ground level due, reportedly, to funds which fell short, with vague plans of adding another floor at a later period as money permitted.

Has that time now come? The answer is ‘more than probably.’ Despite the cooling-down of the residential market there are still buyers aplenty for really good and unusual homes.

Rosenheim has rarity and thus value in spades coming on a 1.2 acre mature, private and practically hidden site close to the city centre.

Hints of its possible restorable qualities and status are the grand limestone pillars and gates, listed by Cork City Council as protected structures, as is Rosenheim itself.

In its current layout, it has a couple of fine-sized formal rooms, such as a 32ft by 17ft drawing room, but it needs expensive interior and exterior changes.

Though an auction guide isn’t yet issued, expect this home to weigh in at upwards of €1.75 million.

Yet it will all be worth it. A finely-finished, larger period-based home on such a site could be worth over €3 million. Developers Howard Holdings are expected to go shortly for planning for large c€2 million new builds at Cleve Hill, a few hundred yards away from Rosenheim.

Rosenheim is due for sale by public auction on November 22, with estate agent Hugh McPhillips of Marsh’s, who can lay a particular company claim to an historical right to the property’s auction. The original owners, the Jacob family, had a milling business and owned the old Jacob’s Mill building on Fr Mathew Quay and a linked property back on the South Mall, a former Turkish baths now called Jacob’s on the Mall.

Even before the site was a Turkish bath, it was an auction room for none other than Marsh’s, which has a pedigree dating back to 1835.