Ex-shoe shop may be right fit

A prime, former shoe shop with one of the most attractive original shops fronts in Cork City’s Oliver Plunkett Street (and almost 60 years of trading history) is looking for new uses.

O’Connors shop has 1,000 sq ft at ground level, but is in effect a mis-matched pair, as one 400 sq ft section is for sale, and other, 600 sq ft, is to let: it comes about as the original owners Daniel and Mary O’Connor added the larger ‘half’ by way of lease back in 1962, merging the two into one open space.

Now, the 1,000 sq ft is a sufficiently attractive size to draw new retailer interest, and the location is superb, at the OPS junction with Princes Street near St Patrick’s Street and the South Mall.

The building at 56/57 has a now-rare green-coloured Pilkington glass cladding, called Vitrolite, which was put in 1963 and is one of the city’s last examples of the style.

There are display windows on two streets. Guide price for corner No 57 is €350,000, with 400 sq ft at ground level and 600 sq ft overhead, via John Paul of Lisney, acting in the offer with Robert Jeffery of Frank V Murphy, who has No 56’s section to lease, at €27,000 pa for the 600 sq ft ground section with overhead stores.

“It commands a prime corner pitch, ideally suited for owner-occupier usage. Freeholds with vacant possession rarely come on the market in the Oliver Plunkett Street area, so this is a rare opportunity to step into the shoes of a premises with a long history,” say the agents.

The O’Connors were on hand in the mid-1900s to found the Oliver Plunkett Street Trading and Civic Association , with families like Cronins, Keanes, and O’Connells and in 1956 it was the first Cork City street to fund Christmas Lights.

Details: Lisney 021-4275079; Frank V Murphy & Co 021-4274204