Tasty €1.7m investment dish served up at former Tung Sing restaurant

Cork’s former Tung Sing restaurant building on Patrick Street, now home to H Samuel, is for sale for €1.7m

No 23 St Patrick's St is in one of Cork city's most recognisable terraces. The building occupies a prime pitch on main street. 

THE distinctive Georgian-style building that once housed the Tung Sing, one of Cork city’s first Chinese restaurants, is on the market for €1.7m.

The landmark property sits in one of St Patrick’s St’s most recognisable terraces and is currently home to H Samuel Jewellers on the ground floor. The two upper floors at No 23 St Patrick’s St have been vacant since the Tung Sing closed in January 2024. It had operated as a family-run Chinese restaurant since the early 1960s.

The 4,499 sq ft (418 sq m) building has several attractive features such as a curved coloured glass canopy over an entrance door and decorative railings at first floor level.

No 23 St Patrick's St when the Tung Sing restaurant was still in situ Picture: Pat Good

Savills’ Micheál Walsh and Isobel O’Regan are marketing the building as a prime commercial investment, with H Samuel producing €125,000 pa in passing rent, reflecting a 6.69% net initial yield. The tenant has extended their lease to 2035, with a break option in 2030. The premises comes to market with the reassurance of secure long-term income from a well-established tenant.

While the two upper floors are vacant, they offer a buyer “multiple value-add angles” the agents said, “whether through re-letting to retail, F&B (food & beverages), or alternative uses, or through redevelopment subject to planning”. Conversion to residential would align with a government drive to encourage Living Over the Shop. Independent access from the street adds flexibility to redevelopment.

Mr Walsh said there’s been some interest already “local investors, as well as Dublin-based”. “It’s a very good unit and a great pitch”, the agent said.

No 23 sits among high profile neighbours includingBrown Thomas, Penneys, Dunnes, Mango, and the recently arrived US fashion retail chain Urban Outfitters.

Urban Outfitters new store at 101 St Patrick's St Picture: Chani Anderson

St Patrick’s Street is enjoying a revival in bricks-and-mortar retail, with significant redevelopment nearby, including Penneys planned expansion and the planned transformation of the former Debenhams/Roches Stores.

DETAILS:

E: [e-mail] E: [e-mail] T: 021 – 4271371