A superbly located development site just off the N40 South Ring Road and 5.5km from Cork city centre is expected to attract considerable interest in the construction industry when it goes for sale later this week.
Joint agents Savills and Agar Commercial Consultants are to invite offers in excess of €6 million for the 6.43 hectares (15.9 acres) at Bishopstown, which are zoned as an "existing built-up area" and most suitable for mixed-use, office, residential or hotel development.
The landbank was bought more than a decade ago by the Grafton Group with the intention of using it for a builders' material warehouse, showroom and plant and equipment hire office. Conditional planning was granted in 2010, but the overall plan was later abandoned by Grafton when the company acquired Cork Builders Providers.
The area around the site going for sale is largely in commercial and residential use. Two car showrooms, Audi Cork and Jaguar, are located along the east boundary of the site, while 22 acres of residential zoned land run along the west side. The land immediately adjacent to the south side is currently in agricultural use but has been earmarked as a “strategic land reserve” in the newly adopted Municipal Local Area Plan.
In another planning variation, conditional planning was granted in 2005 for the development of a 96-bedroom hotel on the site with a function room, leisure facilities and multistorey car park. That permission has also lapsed.
