Proposed Simon apartments in the mix on Cork's north docks

The proposed development is directly opposite the new Dean Hotel

Proposed Simon Community Development Railway St

Computer-generated images (CGIs) of what Cork Simon Community’s most ambitious residential project could look like show an impressive 10-storey apartment building, not substantially out of kilter with other nearby high-rise developments that, between them, represent the ongoing transformation of Cork city’s north docks.

The Simon proposal, for which a planning application has just been lodged with Cork City Council, is for the demolition of existing warehouse buildings at the corner of Alfred St and Railway St, by Hertz car sales, and the construction of a residential apartment block, ranging in height from one to 10 storeys, and consisting of 78 units.

Also in the mix is a ground -floor café and retail unit and secure bicycle parking. Ancillary works include provision of communal open space roof terraces at the first and seventh-floor levels.

If approved, the apartments would operate as long term homes, rather than emergency accommodation, or a homeless shelter.

The proposed development, at the site of the former Turbine House, built to house a steam turbine for a nearby sawmill, is directly opposite the Wilson Architecture-designed Dean Hotel, whose distinctive black cladding marks it out from the towering, glazed, state-of-the-art office blocks that run in front of it along the quays, near Kent Station.

The CGIs, by O’Mahony Pike Architects, show that new steps installed to link the Lower Glanmire Rd to Horgan’s Quay, as part of a €160m BAM/Clarendon office development, which includes a public realm, would run close to the proposed accommodation.

Close by is the €125m JCD Penrose Dock office development, also designed by Wilson Architecture, whose managing director, Frank O’Mahony, has previously praised Cork City Council for allowing significant height variation on the quays.

While the new developments on the north docks are all so far commercial, the BAM/Clarendon Horgan’s Quay project envisages a residential tower with 300-plus build-to-rent apartments, although this element is currently on hold.

The Simon apartments, if approved, would be predominantly for single households to compensate for a widespread shortage of affordable one-bed apartments across the county.

The pre-planning advice on the application states the bulk and scale of the development would need to be “justified”, given the structure will be higher than recently permitted [seven storey] developments in “an emerging key axis location”.

Its visual impact is a “key consideration”, the advice added.

The conservation officer also raised concerns about the scale and massing of the development in regard to its relationship with the former turbine house, which is not a protected site but is noted as having regional significance by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. It was later used by the Metropole Hotel as garages/stores, and subsequently a laundry.

The O’Mahony Pike site description says the proposed development “responds to both the historic and evolving nature of the surrounding context” and that the scale of the docklands “is one of taller structures”.

The application was received by Cork City Council on April 9, and a decision is due by June 3.