Dunkettle 'roadblock moving on' as 800 new homes planned in €300m project

With the Dunkettle interchange project showing tangible progress, developer Michael O’Flynn is ready to move forward

Cork property developer Michael O’Flynn is set to reactivate plans for a €300m house building project in Glanmire which could see 800 homes delivered inside the next decade. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Cork property developer Michael O’Flynn is set to reactivate plans for a €300m house building project in Glanmire which could see 800 homes delivered inside the next decade.

Mr O’Flynn told the Irish Examiner that he hopes to be on site on the lands at Dunkettle in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022 to begin the process of carrying out a detailed planning assessment.

Subject to planning, the hope would be to commence development on the Dunkettle site in 2024/2025.

Mr O’Flynn said he anticipated that the first residential units would be available around nine months after construction commences.

He estimated the entire project will take in the region of six to seven years based on their ongoing experience at nearby Ballinglanna where 250 of 600 planned units are already sold.

2003 purchase

The decision to move ahead with plans to develop the Dunkettle lands comes almost two decades after the 2003 purchase by the O’Flynn Group of the 158-acre Dunkathel House and estate — of which 85 acres is zoned residential — for a reported €24m from the Russell family. 

Previous attempts to build on the lands were unsuccessful. An Bord Pleanála rejected two separate planning applications from the O'Flynn Group in 2004 and 2005, despite approval from Cork County Council. The planning board cited concerns around an inadequate road network in the area at the time. 

However, now that the €215m Dunkettle interchange project is showing tangible progress — the first new flyover of the upgrade opened this week — Mr O’Flynn said they are ready to move forward.

“It’s great news. It was a huge roadblock, pardon the pun, and it’s now moving on.

“It’s very much now our plan, in Q2 maybe of this year, to start the steps in the process of carrying out a detailed planning assessment which will deliver housing in the Dunkettle lands in line with the current zoning policy objectives,” Mr O’Flynn said.

Ideally, they would envisage a “natural move” from Ballinglanna to the adjoining Dunkettle site, he said, adding that a detailed planning assessment would be done “in conjunction and in partnership with the local authority [Cork City Council, since the boundary extension] as well as other strategic stakeholders".

While previously planning applications were for in the order of 700 houses on the site, Mr O’Flynn said this time it is "likely that the density will be significantly higher given new density guidelines etc that currently exist”.

If the density is much higher, the scheme could surpass Mount Oval, where the O'Flynn Group delivered 850 units.

Mr O’Flynn said the Dunkettle development is likely to cost in the region of €250m-€300m “based on our experience of other developments” but with the caveat that an accurate estimate was difficult ahead of a detailed design of the site.

Aerial view of the lands in Dunkettle where the O’Flynn Group is hoping to deliver in the region of 800 new homes.

The O’Flynn Group is behind the delivery of more than 8,000 homes, mainly in Cork, with some in the greater Dublin area in recent years.

In relation to Dunkathel House itself, an 18th-century protected structure, Mr O’Flynn said they would maintain its integrity and any future plans would be “conducive to the local authority and complementary to the development itself”.