Sheen Falls Development: Ninety luxury holiday homes will be launched off plans in another five-star development in Kenmare, Co Kerry, in September.
Sixty-eight detached holiday homes and 22 apartments are to be built in the 350-acre grounds of award-winning hotel Sheen Falls Lodge in the town, and will cost from €800,000.
A Cork property developer, McCarthy Developments, and Danish family the Hoyers, who own Sheen Falls Lodge, are developing Sheen Falls Country Club jointly.
The idea behind the development "is to convert the overall facility into a country club hotel", says Tom McCarthy, managing director of McCarthy Developments. People buying one of the homes will get special rates for all Sheen Falls' facilities, which include a health spa and fishing rights.
Sheen Falls Lodge and its restaurant have won multiple awards - in 2005, it was voted one of the "Top Ten European Resorts" in the Condé Nast Readers Choice Awards.
A golf academy, tennis court,croquet/bowling green, area for archery, falconry and other leisure activities are included in redevelopment plans. Architects Murray O'Laoire are designing the new homes and Brady Shipman Martin are landscape consultants.
The properties will cost from over €800,000 to around €1.7 million. Building work will start in September and the first units should be built by around May 2007. The hotel will handle rentals for owners who want to let their properties.
Tom McCarthy says that this will be the first country club in striking distance of Cork city, and expects that buyers will come from both Dublin and Cork.
McCarthy Developments is behind several residential and commercial schemes in Cork, including Jacob's Island, a 431-unit residential scheme on the outskirts of Cork and Harty's Quay, a waterside development, It is also planning to develop a 2.5-acre site in the Cork's south docklands, an area earmarked for major redevelopment under the Cork Docklands Development Strategy.
The company also sponsored Cork city's two-week music festival, Live at the Marquee, which brought artists like Bob Dylan, Art Garfunkel and Kanye West to play concerts in Cork.
