Cork docklands property at Victoria Road sells for nearly €1m after strong interest

Former Doyle Shipping office to be redeveloped as part of future south docks transformation near proposed Luas line

1 Victoria Road Doyle adjoins Packo Maguire's Port bar and the Idle Hour 

A key quayside building — seen as a springboard for Cork City’s 21st-century docklands development — has just been sold to an adjoining property owner for close to €1m.

Very strong interest drove bidding well above the property’s initial guide price of €575,000 when launched last summer.

Just sold is the former Doyle Shipping administrative office, housed in a three-storey, mid-20th-century building at 1 Victoria Rd. It is located between the Idle Hour bar and Goldberg's bar and restaurant at No 4.

No 1 has been acquired by businessman Packo Maguire, of Abbeyside & Co, which specialises in office interiors and fit-outs.

Well set

Last July, Mr Maguire unsuccessfully sought planning permission to convert the former Port Bar at 2 Victoria Rd into a ground-floor restaurant with three overhead apartments in a new four-storey structure behind the retained facade of the Port Bar. Planning was refused on the grounds of design, height, and a lack of outdoor space.

It is likely the new owner of No 1 Victoria Rd will now seek mixed-use planning permission for the combined properties, in a future-proofed location where the existing commercial cityscape meets the emerging, residential-focused south docks campus.

The site is also close to the proposed Cork Luas line, part of the city’s long-term transport strategy.

The sale of No 1 was confirmed this week by Siobhán Young, of Cushman & Wakefield, who handled the sale with her colleague Peter O’Flynn, and indicated “it made very substantially over the guide, with huge interest shown”.

Ms Young declined to identify the buyer, but local sources confirm it is Packo Maguire — a businessman with interests in property fit-outs and redevelopment — and that bidders primarily viewed it as a redevelopment opportunity.

The site is close to major developments such as Navigation Square, partially retained by O’Callaghan Properties (OCP), as well as OCP’s larger-scale plans for Kennedy Quay, the R&H Hall and Goulding site, and Centre Park Road.

Other docklands projects nearby include those by Glenveagh (at the former Ford distribution site and Live at the Marquee venue) and the JCD Group (at the former Sextant/Carey Tools site), with planning permissions already in place. These projects, alongside Land Development Agency involvement in several locations, are expected to deliver thousands of residential units.

The three-storey, approximately 4,000 sq ft Victoria Road property had served as the administrative office of the long-established Doyle Shipping Group, a business now in its third generation of Doyle family ownership, founded as a stevedoring firm in 1886 by DF Doyle.

The vendors of the well-located No 1 Victoria Road property were the Doyle Shipping Group.

DETAILS: Cushman & Wakefield 021-4275454, cushmanwakefield.com.