Rare chance to buy 14-acre Fermoy riverside and town centre profile €2.85m site
Fermoy Town Cenre Town Park 14-acre site. Savills Cork for sale excess €2.85 million
THE setting of a 14-acre development land plot in north Cork's Fermoy could hardly look prettier – it's set on the northern banks of the River Blackwater, just above the town's much-photographed weir, and adjoins Fermoy's public park, a playground and swimming pool.
The town centre site is in two sections, is zoned for development spanning a mix of uses, with planning on the larger portion for a destination garden centre, glasshouses and cafe, at the site's closest section to the Blackwater and the bridge on the R639.
This access point was previously on the N8 before the town's bypass for the M8 Cork-Dublin, with access points to the town north and south of the river from the motorway.
There's a second access from the Fermoy-Mallow road/N72, just east of the town centre, and that section has zoning for residential development, residential care facility, a small scale neighbourhood centres small scale offices and/or local medical /healthcare services.
The 14 acres comes to the open market with estate agents Savills, with a price guide in excess of €2.85 million, and Savills' James O'Donovan bills it as “a superb development opportunity in one of north Cork’s most popular towns, with full planning on a part.”
He notes the resurgence of confidence and activity in and around Fermoy, with Savills having sold two town-centre sites in the past year on the Mill Road, one to Tesco for c €800,000, the other for a sub-€1m price.
Tesco has now gone for planning for a 40,000 sq ft store on the Mill Road, with other strong retailers locally including SuperValu, Lidl, Aldi, Iceland, and Dairygold Co-Op Superstore, whilst new house developments are also in the pipeline for locations like Strawhall and Coolcarron. The last census, 2016, put Fermoy's population at c 6,500, and the town was the focus of major flood relief schemes in the past five years.
Both previous town centre site sales attracted good interest, says Mr O'Donovan and “we expect the same this time around. Confidence in Fermoy has grown massively over the last couple of years and this is evident with the construction of a new Primary Care Centre facility, and the recent planning application from Tesco.”
This latest site offer (facing the rowing club to the south, with extensive river frontage) is, effectively, the last of the four quadrants around the wide bridge to see development on any scale, with the other three segments developed decades, if not centuries ago.
Part of the grounds held the former Fermoy House, the original Palladian home of Scotsman John Anderson who arrived in Fermoy in the late 1700s and set about laying out the town (and barracks) to the plan still evident centuries later. A portion also holds one of the largest specimen oak trees in the country: Oldoak Garden Centre, anyone? Acorns Cafe?
According to Savills “it's rare that an unencumbered town centre site of this scale comes to the open market, and with the added benefit of planning permission, developers and investors alike will see this as an ideal opportunity to acquire a substantial landholding in the heart of Fermoy with value-add potential.”
They describe the topography of the 'L'-shaped site as flat throughout, with dual access from the N72 along the north and east boundaries, while a stone wall naturally divides the site in two.
Savills' James O'Donovan says they expect a good level of interest, not just from developers but from a wider range, and predict "a destination garden centre will prove very popular amongst the Cork community."
Details: Savills 021-4271371
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