Baltimore at your convenience

WEST Cork tourist harbour village, Baltimore, last weekend hosted the Pirate Festival to commemorate the sacking of Baltimore in 1631 — and now there’s a chance to ‘plunder’ a lot of retail trade in the bustling summer resort.

The retail trade at Baltimore is seasonal, but a site able to hoover up a huge portion of convenience store summer spending, from outlying holiday home residents and sailors, will tempt investors and end-users.

Up for sale this week, with Peter O’Flynn and Eoin Ryan, of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald Cork, is a 0.54-acre site at the entrance to Baltimore. It promises the Holy Grail of easy access and car-parking for shoppers. The site, with full planning permission for a convenience store such as a Mace, Gala, Centra or Londis, is on the eastern approach to Baltimore, close to Casey’s Hotel and Glebe House cafe and gardens.

A rectangular shape, it has 70 metres of frontage to the main Baltimore/Skibbereen road. It has planning permission (until 2019) for demolition of farm buildings and their replacement with a 4,272 sq ft store, goods delivery area, parking for 24 cars, new entrance and site works.

“Baltimore is under-shopped, at present, and has only one small convenience store in the centre of the village, overlooking the harbour,” says Mr Ryan.

“What sets this site apart from the competition is the ample availability of car parking, and the profile and accessibility of the site.”

“Even though main trade will be seasonal, this site is going to be attractive to local retailers and also the locally focused national convenience retailers, due to its unique attributes in this popular tourist village in the heart of West Cork,” he says. There’s tourist trade from Easter through to the October bank holiday weekend.

Price is €200,000.

Details: DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, 021-4275454.