No monkey business please as Cork City pet shop comes on the market for €650,000

Popular location includes planning permission for three apartments

Eddie O'Flaherty with his wife Teresa, daughter Jennifer and son Adrian and grandchildren Teddy Lake and Daisy O'Flaherty at Ideal pet shop on North Main street, Cork. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

Was the Bimbo in the Window a Himbo? Countless Corkonians made their way to the Ideal Pet Shop over the years to check out the cheeky primate Bimbo, whose monkey business at 29 North Main St made him a crowd puller.

That same shop and a vacant site to the rear is up for sale now for €650,000 as owner Eddie O’Flaherty bows out — retiring from the family business, which his father Edward started in the early 1960s with his wife Noreen.

Eddie’s been involved from the age of six, when his mother would collect him from school and they would head for North Main St. He recalls being sent down the quays, by the R&H Hall silos, to pick up corn — which they would sell as bird feed.

He thinks Bimbo may have come off a boat at the quays.

“I’m not sure what kind of monkey he was, but he was a great attraction.

Eddie O'Flaherty with goldfish the Ideal pet shop on North Main Street, Cork. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

“He was the only monkey between here and Dublin [Zoo]. Each day, people would arrive with fruit for Bimbo — apples, oranges, and grapes.

“But all Bimbo wanted was cups of cocoa. I’d make it for him and he used to drink it from a steel cup,” Eddie says.

As well as indulging the monkey’s drinking habit, Bimbo was treated to an annual holiday at Langford Row, family home of the 12-member O’Flaherty clan.

Bimbo was later sold off and another monkey took his place, cryptically known as Cheetah.

Cheetah’s claim to fame was a starring role in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in the 1970s, when he was displayed in a cage on top of a van/float promoting the Ideal Pet Shop.

“We tied bags of goldfish all over the float. By the end of the parade, all of the goldfish were robbed,” Eddie laughs.

The pet shop did a big trade in birds — there were lots of pigeon clubs at the time and small bird clubs.

The trophy bird at North Main St was an Indian myna bird known as Georgie.

Georgie, who was oblivious to political correctness, used to wolf-whistle after women. “He used to say ‘hello Georgie’ and good morning Georgie’ too,” Eddie says.

Georgie wasn’t the shop’s only exotic turn, there were boa constrictors and tarantulas too.

“We’d go to Holland to buy tarantulas; we still stock them. I wouldn’t sell them to just anyone, I’d have to be sure they had some kind of knowledge of tarantulas,” Eddie says.

Goldfish are the best-seller these days and, contrary to popular belief that they’re easy to overfeed and kill, Eddie says they can live for 20 years.

The site makes up a commercial ground floor unit and planning permission overhead for three apartments.

He gets his exotic fish mainly from Singapore.

Small birds are also popular, and Eddie sells canaries, budgies, zebra finches, and cockatiels.

He also sells snakes and reptiles. Lots of customers come in for cat and dog supplies, and others come for frozen mice to feed snakes.

It’s an emotional decision for Eddie to sell up, given the long family association with the pet trade. A newspaper cutting in the window highlights how they were recognised in 2017, in the annual multi-generational Family Business Awards.

Eddie says some shops on North Main St are still family-run, but there’s been a lot of change in the city and “it’s not as busy”.

His decision to exit the business presents “an exceptional re-development opportunity”, selling agent Terence O’Leary, of Murray Browne, says.

“What you have is a commercial ground floor unit and planning permission overhead for three apartments. That’s to the front of the building at 29 North Main St.

“In addition to No 29, there’s a large storage area (one-and-a-half storeys) to the rear and an adjacent vacant site with direct access to Kyle St.

“There’s precedent in the area as a building next door has been redeveloped into a dozen or so apartments over three or four storeys,” Mr O’Leary says.

No 29 itself is spread over four floors, including a 120 sq m ground floor retail unit (the pet shop). There’s full planning permission over the remaining three floors for three apartments, including a 47 sq m first floor apartment, the same again on the second floor, and a 39 sq m studio apartment on the top floor. Mr O’Leary adds: “Given the prime location and such a high demand for rental properties, this would make an excellent long-term investment.”

More information: Terence O’Leary, Murphy Browne auctioneers. TEL:[phone]. EMAIL: [e-mail].