Lee Clinic gets a reboot in Cork

By Tommy Barker

New uses, spanning health, education, fitness, weight loss and offices, as well as an expanded medical presence, are envisaged for the re-booted Lee Clinic, a mile from Cork’s city suburbs on the Lee Road.

O’Flynn Construction have now been engaged to project manage the completion of what was billed in back in 2006 as a €20 million medical centre, with multi-storey parking on an easily accessed site, when initiated as a private venture backed by five medical consultants and developer John Bowen.

Already now an established medical campus, with five consultants’ rooms in operation out of 22 in total, it now has elements being re-offered to investors and end users, via agents Siobhán Young and Peter O’Flynn of Cushman & Wakefield.

Up for sale is Block 1, comprising 6,666 sq ft in a stand-alone property over three floors, which is being completed to a ‘vanilla’ finish, offered to investors and to owner-occupiers, and guided at €1.3 million.

A separate strategy is to let suites and space in Block 2, which runs to 1,811 sq m/ 19,489 sq ft, again over three floors: it currently comprises 22 medical suites, with 17 available to let, ranging from 70 sq m / 757 sq ft to 95 sq m / 1,019 sq ft. Indicated rents are €25 per square foot pa, and it’s expected that once rental levels step up, Block 2 may then be offered for sale as an investment.

“The Lee Clinic is already a well-established location from a medical perspective, with a number of consultants having operated there for almost 10 years,” says C&W’s Peter O’Flynn, noting that the involvement of O’Flynn Construction “will bring the multi-storey car park into use, complete site works and bring the entire clinic into full time use.” The site had previously been the offices of construction firm Bowen Mullally, involving c 2.5 acres just a mile along the generally undeveloped Lee Road from Wellington Bridge.

It’s easily accessible from the UCC campus,and the Bon Secours which is undergoing a major expansion, from the CUH in Wilton, the Mercy Hospital closer to the city along the Lee, and it’s adjacent to St Joseph’s/ Mount Carmel, while Marymount is also in the western city catchment, with the quadrant also a strong contender for a proposed, new further acute hospital.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Cork MD Peter O’Flynn says that over the past decade, since the Lee Clinic investment commenced, the campus has been well maintained including external landscaping and surface car parking and internally. Block 2 has a manned visitors reception and client seating areas, lift access, tile and wood flooring, air conditioning and an enclosed link bridge to the multi-storey car park. Completion works have recommenced on site, including internal completion of Block 1, and are expected to conclude by summer’s end, when the car park will be brought into commission.

When first envisaged in the mid- 2000s, the Lee Clinic was to have 36 medical consulting suites, catering for up to 70 consultants, and names associated with its development included cardiologist Conor O’Shea, surgeon Brian Whooley, gastroenterologist William Stack, E&T surgeon Charles Shinkwin, and dermatologist William O’Connor.

Selling/letting agent Siobhán Young says “the Lee Clinic provides the opportunity to occupy modern office facilities with extensive surface and multi-storey car parking at a time when modern office stock in Cork city centre is at all-time low vacancy levels, and parking is now at a premium.”

Now, broader interest is expected “from a wide variety of user types including medical, health and fitness, office and educational given its proximity to UCC, CIT, CUH and other hospitals,” she adds.

Details: Cushman & Wakefield 021-4275454