Square Deal back on the market in Cork

What price a Square Deal now? Offered back to the market almost a year after a ‘sale agreed’ at between €6-7 million didn’t proceed when the purchaser withdrew is the former Square Deal furniture store, on 0.8 of an acre on Cork’s Washington Street.

Agents Savills re-guide the valuable site, with triple street frontage, at €6 million, and aim to sell by tender, by November 10.

It could suit for private apartments, student apartments, or part retail, and previous interest included those elements, with scope for a discount retailer such as Lidl or Aldi seen as a strong part-anchor. Also a possibility is a hotel, given proximity to the city centre.

Already in place is the River Lee hotel, on part of the old Jurys Hotel site, which also now accommodates private apartments which rent strongly.

And, adjoining the River Lee hotel site is the former Esso filling station site, targeted for student apartments by specialist accommodation providers Ziggurat, who operate schemes in Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

There’s currently well over 1,000 student beds planned or in train at Victoria Cross/Crow’s Nest site, at the Carrigrohane Road etc, by a variety of operators, including UCC.

The Square Deal site, some of which has protected structures, previously drew “keen interest from a number of sectors such as developers, student accommodation providers, hoteliers, retailers and education providers,” and has 75 metres of road frontage to Washington Street, as well as to Woods’ Street and Lynchs’ Street.

When offered last year, it had a guide of €5.75m, and attracted widespread interest from local players, as well as from Dublin-based operators such as Cairns.

The building has been a furniture store for 40 years, and the owners the Herlihy family (who also own the Loft, on Cornmarket Street) have retired, holding a closing down sale in mid 2015.

Set in the Living City Tax Initiative catchment (providing relief for qualifying expenditure incurred on either residential or specific commercial refurbishment and/or conversion work) and coming under the City Centre Commercial Core Area (CCA), it has an array of uses, excluding comparison retail use.

“The site’s central location and versatility makes it ideal for a number of uses” says surveyor James O’Donovan, one of the two Savills’ Cork agents handling the sale.”

DETAILS: Savills 021-4271371