City site quietly up for grabs on Cork's 'Millionaire's Row'
A strikingly large pair of late-Georgian semi-detached houses, Nos 1 and 2 Ashton Place, plus a small cottage, on 1.68 acres of primely set land at the city end of Blackrock Road is being quietly marketed to niche builder/developers. Picture: Dan Linehan
THE words ‘prime development site’ have rarely rung as true as they do in regards to the low-key offer of a ‘millionaire’s row’ plot on Blackrock Road, Cork City, which is already making €1.25m an acre — about the price of a singular ‘good’ house in the locale.
Blackrock Road is home to over 16 individual private homes that have sold for over €1m in the past decade, many for multimillion euro sums, while two large new builds are set to commence construction shortly, replacing a bungalow bought for €1.13m and likely to be priced at c €1.5m and c €1.7m.
Meanwhile, being quietly marketed to niche builder/developers is a strikingly large pair of late-Georgian semi-detached houses, Nos 1 and 2 Ashton Place, plus a small cottage, on 1.68 acres of primely set land at the city end of Blackrock Road, close to Ashton Comprehensive.
Agents Behan Irwin Gosling (BIG) has quoted a guide price of €2.5m and it has been quietly marketing the properties and site to select developers/clients.
The mix of existing homes and site is not, however, actively being promoted online or elsewhere, but is said to be getting keen interest given the niche location.
Sources say bidding has gone over €2.1m this month for the property, with c 1.5 acres developable and readily accessible, although BIG selling agent Cearbhall Behan, acting with agent John Downing, has declined to confirm any details.
The privately circulated prospectus says: “The properties encompass a significant development opportunity for refurbishment in addition to further development of the extensive site to the rear which enjoys access frontage of c.150 metres through Ashton Park.”
No 3 Ashton Place, a very well-kept home next door with finer features, sold in 2017 for €960,000, having gone to market with a price hope of €1.25m.
To the south, Ashton Park House was the 2020 big city sale of the year, fetching €1.85m, despite pandemic timing on its launch.
Across this end of the Blackrock Road is a private home developed around a Georgian villa on 1.2 sloping acres, previously called Rosenheim, which sold in a 2006 auction for €2.7m, with a similar sum then spent on its extension and upgrades.
Tellingly, little description is given of the pair of period semi-ds at 1 and 2 Ashton Place, which date to the 1840s and have lain idle for years. They are three-bay and three-storeys, each with substantial side annexes the size of many good family homes. Each of the main duo is likely to be 4,000-5,000 sq ft in size and needing full restoration.
Similarly, no indication is given in the sales outline of what sort of new homes, quantity or density may be built on the square and level plot between this duo on the main Blackrock Road and the diminutive Ashton Cottage. Ashton Park cul de sac is home to a small number of private homes as well as two three-storey blocks of 1960s-built apartments.
Nos 1 and 2 Ashton Place are understood to have been owned by Cork builder Barry Burke, who developed a number of estates in the Blackrock area, such as Richmond, around the 1960s and 1970s. The properties/land are being sold on behalf of family members.
The Burke family also owned 5 acres on the Boreenmanna Road, sold to O’Flynn Construction in the mid-2000s for a reported €16m, which is home to the Belfield Abbey development.
The auctioneers say the properties are in “Cork’s most desirable residential suburb, enjoying significant levels of demand”.
The site is close to the Cleve Hill address, where detached new builds in the Botanika development sold at prices up to €850,000, and individual Blackrock Road house sites — if and when they come to market — can fetch up to €500,000 each.
Coincidentally, BIG will get another chance to sample demand for Blackrock Road properties later this spring.
Residential agent Mark Gosling is setting up to sell two one-off homes to be built on the 0.4-acre grounds of a 1980s bungalow called Modeligo, near Menloe Gardens, and a private home built in the mid-2000s at a then-reported cost of over €4m.
These two homes, designed by architects Coughlan De Keyser and which will replace the 3,000 sq ft Modeligo (bought for €1.13m by an unidentified individual), will be over 4,000 sq ft each, over three floors, with the larger priced at c €1.7m.
What gets built at Ashton Place, and at what price levels, will be a story unfolding beyond 2021.
- Details BIG: 021 4270007
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
