Corbett student accommodation property is courting a new buyer
In separate lots, they follow on the €10m sale of the Corbett-assembled Parnell Place hotel site last year to the Dalata Hotel Group.
Listed this week with joint agents Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE are Copley Court, a mix of purpose-built student accommodation and offices, earning €1.22m pa; along with Leeside Apartmets, with 149 bedrooms across 78 units, and currently earning €676,000 pa, with scope to grow that after refurbishments and relettings.
The largest offer is Copley Court, guided at €15.5m plus, which has 37 student accommodation apartments, 60 parking spaces and 4,000 sq m of commercial/offices, of which 2,480 sq m is let to UCC/CIT’s Centre for Architectural Studies: it yields €260,000 pa, or circa 20% of Copley Court’s income.
The Centre for Architectural Studies is expected to relocate in the next year or so to a new-build currently under construction on Douglas Street/Evergreen Road, by the Nano Nagle Centre, and there’s a current planning application to extend and almost double Copley Court’s student accommodation numbers from a current 37 units to 70, within the existing linked buildings.
Copley Court is just off Anglesea Street, by the new District Court building under construction with BAM, and is also close to the School of Music, St John’s College and the College of Commerce, as well as the South Infirmary hospital complex.
And, it adjoins the former 1.3 acre South Terrace Brooks Haughton site, now owned by Dairygold and where planning is in place for a 240,000 sq ft office development. Trinity Quarter is among the sites which have been considered by UCC for its new €100m Business School (see separate story p17.)
Guided separately at €7.75 million is the Corbett-developed Leeside Apartments, on Bachelors Quay near North Main Street and facing the North Mall, near several UCC properties, including the UCC Distillery Centre, the Tyndall Institute, and the Mercy Hospital site.
Described as a multi-family investment, Leeside Apartments, spans five blocks with 78 apartments, which are let to a mix private tenants and to students. It is currently 87% occupied, with an income of €676,000, and sections of the block need refurbishing, and asset management, which could increase the rental income. This property was previously put on the market in autumn 2010, guiding €10m.
It has 78 apartments, in a mix of one, two, three and four bedroomed units, with 32 car spaces.
The two properties are offered in separate lots, by private treaty via CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.
Closer to UCC’s main campus, a new student accommodation building is now under construction on the Western Road, at the former Muskerry Filling Station for Ziggurat, while the Square Deal building nearby has also recently been purchased by a UK entity with student accommodation also envisaged.
Other student apartment development are in the wings west of the UCC campus, around Victoria Cross and Carrigrohane Straight Road.
Noting both strong office and accommodation demand focused on Cork city centre, CBRE’s Willie Norse says “the economics for this asset class are working really well at present.”
Cushman & Wakefield director Peter O’Flynn adds that “considering the current expansion plans for UCC, and CIT in Cork, and the continued development of new offices, the existing demands on accommodation will only increase.
Both these assets are well placed to take advantage of this.”
etails: Cushman & Wakefield 021-4275454, CBRE 01-6185500
