By George, prime renovated Cork quayside properties come to market for €3.5m
13 and 14 Georges Quay, Cork have been completely renovated in the past year.
INVESTORS looking for a pretty safe bet will be interested in two high-profile, fully-let George’s Quay properties fresh to market with a guide price of €3.5m.
Offering a healthy rental return of €190,000 per annum and underpinned by a strong tenant covenant, including a recently renewed ground-floor lease to the popular Izz Cafe, Nos 13 and 14 George’s Quay have been completely renovated in the past year.
Both buildings have the same owner and both include a ground-floor commercial unit occupied in each case by Izz Cafe which expanded from No 13 into No 14 late last year.
The upper floors in both buildings, which contain four apartments apiece, are fully let following conversion from offices to living quarters after they were sold last year. All eight apartments are leased to the local authority on a 25-year lease. In the case of No 13, the lease, worth €67,320 per annum, was entered into on December 20, 2023, with a review every three years, linked to the consumer price index (CPI). The same timeframes apply to No 14, where the annual lease is €70,380. The benefit to an investor in having a local authority as a lessee is that rental payments are guaranteed for the duration of the lease.
The ground floor commercial units are leased to Palestinian couple Izz and Eman Alkarjeh whose award-winning restaurant expanded last year into the premises previously occupied by Casanova Gelato, Cork City’s first real Italian gelato shop, which opened in 2016 and shut in 2022, when the building went on the market. The Alkarjehs entered a new 20-year lease on both units last August, subject to five-yearly CPI reviews. The annual Izz Cafe rent roll at No 13 is €25,000 per annum, plus VAT, while at No 14, it’s €27,500 pa plus VAT.
Total annual rental income at No 13 is €92,320 with a slightly higher rental income at No 14 of €97,880, bringing the total rental income across both premises to just over €190,000.
Selling agent Sam Kingston of Casey & Kingston said the George’s Quay properties represent “a wonderful investment opportunity”.
“There are sitting tenants with a very strong tenant base on a long term lease. It’s an excellent city centre investment opportunity,” Mr Kingston said.
Both properties, which between them measure 604 sq m, have been “refurbished to the highest standards to meet all building and fire regulations” and are in “superb condition” Mr Kingston said. Both have benefitted from new double-glazed windows, insulation, replacement roofs, new flooring, plastering, painting, new plumbing and electrics and new heating systems.
No 13, a three-storey building, and four-storey No 14, are in a prime city centre riverside location, within Cork’s central business district, at the intersection of Dunbar Street and George’s Quay, overlooking the south channel of the River Lee, just 800m from St Patrick's Street. The quays in this part of town are currently undergoing considerable rejuvenation, including the opening on the opposite quay earlier this year of the city's first Premier Inn, as well as the restoration of a number of period office buildings.
Also in the neighbourhood, work is due to get underway this year on UCC's new state-of-the-art business school at the former Brooks Haughton site between Copley Street and South Terrace, after the European Investment Bank announced €50m in funding towards its development last June.
Once completed, UCC has said the development will "provide an economic boost to the area by bringing over 4,500 students and 225 staff into the city centre every day".
Meanwhile Cork City Council is expecting work to begin in the second quarter of this year on the construction of a new public realm and flood defence system at across-the-river Morrison's Quay, while on nearby South Terrace, the JMK Group, owned by the UK-based Kajani family, is hoping to open a 103-bed Adagio Aparthotel across three Georgian buildings - Nos 31,32 and 33 South Terrace - later this year.
Back on George's Quay, Nos 13 and 14 are well-positioned to benefit from this ongoing rejuvenation. While they are for sale jointly for €3.5m, they can be purchased as one lot, or as separate lots.
The two buildings, along with No 15 George’s Quay, were previously owned by the late auctioneer Liam Lynch and were the first properties of his substantial Cork portfolio to arrive to market, in 2022, following his death in 2018. The trio were priced at €1.1m. While Nos 13 and 14 were bought and renovated, No 15 remains on the market, also with Casey & Kingston, and has a guide price of €300,000. The buildings date to the mid-1700s, making them some of the city’s oldest terraced properties.
Occupiers in the immediate vicinity include Martin A Harvey Solicitors, Bank of Ireland, Spar, Cafe Velo and Badger and Dodo coffee house. The buildings are also close to the award-winning Nano Nagle visitor centre on Douglas Street and to UCC's new School of Architecture.
Sam Kingston, Casey & Kingston Tel: 021 427112
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