Historic Lotamore House is rejuvenated as a fertility clinic
Now set to employ 55, the Waterstone Clinic (previously known as the Cork Fertility Centre,) has just completed as a 13,000sq ft centre of excellence at the 210-year old Lotamore House in Cork.
The classical, villa-style building was sold in 2013 to Dr John and Susan Waterstone for an unconfirmed €800,000 having had a recently chequered past in previous ownerships.
It was controversially and briefly occupied by a protest group the Rodolphus Allen Private Family Trust after the property was taken over by receivers Deloitte from previous private owner, Sidney McElhinney, who had plans to turn it into a 90-bed nursing home.
Lotamore House had previously sold for over €3m, on 11 acres by the Tivoli dual carriageway, and other previous uses of the ‘grande era’ villa included offices for a computer firm, as well as being offices for Irish Sweepstakes in the mid-1900s.
It had operated too as a luxury guesthouse for many years, hosting judges on the circuit, among other guests.
It featured on TV news during the brief-lived occupation until gardaí moved a caravan off its ground.
And, a proposal to document Lotamore House’s transition to 21st century fertility clinic was pitched to RTÉ by a production company, GoodLookingFilms, but the broadcaster didn’t commission the series which promised to mix medical science and embryo technology with Grand Designs.
Private family owners included the Hacketts, the Ronayne Mahonys, the Cudmores, the Lunhams and the Huguenot merchant family, the Perriers.
Now, claiming to be “the most advanced fertility unit in the country,” Lotamore is set to play a role in creating new families, out of a building with three centuries of Cork history.
The Waterstone Clinic previously operated in College Road, Cork, with clinic also in Waterford, Limerick and Dublin, on Leeson St.
At Lotamore, it has grown its lab space five fold to 1,500 sq ft of high tech lab with with the latest embryology technology and the building also accommodates five scan rooms (up from two), five consultation rooms, five recovery rooms, three masterbatorium, two theatres, a reception etc.
Procedures are on a day-visit basis, with no overnight facilities.
“Lotamore House is a historic 18th century Cork building, and we have sympathetically refurbished and restored it, preserving its fine period details while incorporating modern facilities and comforts.
“We have endeavoured to make a visit to Lotamore House as stress-free as possible for patients, with generous parking, spacious waiting areas and an interior design that maximises privacy,” said founder Dr John Waterstone, who will host Lotamore’s first seminar post-opening on March 23.
