Work underway on €125m, 275-home Bishopstown scheme

‘Flipped’ site starts work off Waterfall road after Ardstone €10.4m site sale to developers Bridgewater Homes

CGI overlay of houses and apartments to be built at the development site at Ardarostig Bishopstown by Bridgewater Homes

Thu, 13 Jul, 2023 - 17:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker report

CONSTRUCTION work on one of the largest residential developments in Cork City’s western suburbs in several years has kicked off after a €10.4m land sale at Ardarostig. A profitable ‘flip’ from major developers Ardstone to emerging development firm Bridgewater Homes has finally closed out, in affluent Bishopstown.

Ardarostig site setting: Savills sold the 15.5 acres for vendors Ardstone to Bridegwater for €10.4m

The edge-of suburbs site, once owned by the Grafton Group/Heaton Buckley, which sold out a portion for an Audi motor dealership a decade ago, had sold to active investors and developers Ardstone back in 2018 for €6.2m.

Ardstone, currently active on a number of high-density Dublin sites, achieved planning over a year ago for Cork’s Ardarostig land, next to a Strategic Land Reserve, after a ‘fast-track’ SHD process for 275 units with design by Dublin-based Fleming Architects.

They subsequently agreed a deal for €10.4m to Bridgewater Homes, established in 2020 with a Cork office on the South Douglas Rd, via agents Savills in 2022, which has only now closed out, and with construction work swiftly following this month (site pic this week, right).

The development site at Ardrostig/Ardarostig, Waterfall, Bishopstown, Cork. Picture Denis Minihane.

Directors listed for increasingly active Bridgewater Homes are David Walsh, Alf Smiddy, Paul Barrett (all Cork), and Wexford-based Declan O’Brien.

However, tenure types — ie private sales, rentals/PRS or bulk sales to AHBs or the local authority — for the very significant site are as yet unrevealed by purchasers Bridgewater Homes.

Apartments to follow houses, with the development of apartments now made viable by the Croi Conaithe scheme

The delivery set to flow now, and likely across mixed tenure types, follows hot on the heels of the completion of another mixed-tenure 64-unit development with an Ardarostig address, at Hawkes Road, Bishopstown, where OBR Construction has delivered 35 affordable ownership townhouses primarily for FTBs, offered this spring via Cohalan Downing with two-beds from €246,000 and three-beds from €289,500.

Mixed tenure delivered at Ardrostig, Hawkes Road

Machinery has moved on site just to the west now at a far more substantial 15.6 acres previously wooded site atArdarostig, between Dunnes and Marymount along the side of the N41 and at the city end of the Waterfall Road: it’s for a scheme of 275 units, with construction being overseen by Bridgewater director and company secretary David Walsh, an engineer and developer previously associated with Rockforest Homes/Into the Future, among other Cork firms.

The as-yet-unnamed development, to be accessed off the Waterfall Road, includes 136 houses, plus 99 apartments and 40 duplexes, with the overall value put at c €125m: that equates to a €450,000 average unit cost and a suggested 30-month delivery span.

Developers Bridgewater Homes have current new house schemes in Cork, at Arlington, Kerry Pike, a scheme of 21 units with four-bed detacheds currently on the market at €565,000 via Savills; and at Lisnagar Gardens Rathcormac, for 61 units, selling via Sherry FitzGerald O’Donovan at prices from €350,000.

Just what may be offered for private purchase, and other tenure types at this Ardarostig/Waterfall site is not yet indicated, as are any appointed selling agents: requests for details have been made, and it’s likely houses will be built in advance of apartments with heights of up to four storeys for the latter.

The decision by Ardstone to sell on their Cork purchase mirrors the experience of a number of other Dublin-based developers such as Lioncor, Cairn, Glenveagh, and others, who made significant Cork land purchases post-crash, but who became active on very few sites, with exceptions being Glenveagh in Blackrock, Maryborough, and Carrigaline, and Cairn in Carr’s Hill, Douglas.

Selling agent for vendor Ardstone on these Bishopstown lands, Peter O’Meara and James O’Donovan of Savills, confirmed the 2022 €10.4m deal between Ardstone and Bridgwater had closed within the last fortnight, saying: “It’s a great vote of confidence in the local market and confirms interest in sites with the benefit of planning.” “This is a superb site in Ardarostig, Bishopstown, where there has not been a new scheme of scale for many years,” they added, close to the N41/South Ring Road, major employers, CUH, UCC, MTU, and Wilton and Dunnes shopping complexes.