Work progresses at €20m Cork office block The Prism

Will be one of Cork's most eye-catching office developments

Piling is complete at The Prism, the long-awaited €20m office block near the city's bus station at Parnell Place, Cork City. Pic: Larry Cummins

Piling is complete at The Prism, a €20m construction project set to deliver one of Cork City’s most eye-catching office blocks.

Work got underway on the narrow site next to the city’s bus station in Parnell Place late last year and a spokesperson for the developer, Tower Holdings Group/Clontarf Street Developments Ltd, said it’s due for completion by August 2023.

Designed by Reddy A+U and inspired by New York’s Flat Iron building, the 15-storey glass tower (builders are C Field Construction) will provide almost 6,000sq m of office space on a tiny 300sq m site.

CGI image of the Prism Building.

A second glass tower more than twice the height of The Prism is planned by the same developer (Tower Holdings Group) for Custom House Quay and although permission was granted over a year ago, work has yet to commence.

The proposed €150m development includes a 34-storey tower hotel — set to be Ireland’s tallest building — with a range of cultural amenities at its base, including a maritime centre and accessible quayside plazas.

Video from recent weeks. pic.twitter.com/ge4Z71pTjp

— Larry Cummins (@LarryCpix) June 9, 2022

At the head of Tower Holdings Group is Kerryman Kevin O’Sullivan, whose siblings Dónal and Helen are awaiting sentencing in the US, after being convicted of defrauding unions of benefits funds, which should have been paid on behalf of workers at Navillus, their New York-based construction firm.

Dónal, who is a passive investor, with his brother Kevin (58), in the Port of Cork site in Cork City, filed a motion earlier this year seeking an acquittal or a new trial. Helen, who ran the payroll department at Navillus, filed a similar motion, as did the firm’s head accountant Pádraig Naughton. Their motions were denied. Sentencing, with possible jail terms of up to 20 years, has been set for October 24.

Dónal and Helen, from Ballinskelligs, both in their 60s, along with Mr Naughton (50s), were found guilty following a 17-day trial of participation in a multi-year fraud scheme, designed to evade making required payroll contributions to certain benefits funds for Navillus employees, who performed work covered by collective bargaining agreements.