€50m office block could be biggest built in Cork

50m office block could be biggest built in Cork

Friday, December 20, 2013

Construction cranes could be back on Cork Citys skyline next year, with plans being lodged today for a 50m eight-storey office block alongside City Hall.

By Tommy Barker Property Editor

Just last month JCD sold two completed Mahon City Gate blocks to Irish Life Assurances for 40m, and has now teamed up with BAM on whats probably the best available office site in the city centre, fronting the Elysian complex on Albert Quay.

Designed by Henry J Lyons Architects, it looks to be the single biggest office block ever built in the city. And, with large open floor areas of 30,000sq ft, it fits the IDAs call for such space in Dublin, Cork, and Galway for the arrivals of foreign companies.

The Albert Quay site currently has two separate office planning grants for large buildings: One is already owned by BAM, and theyve just bought the second Doyle Warehouses site (previously owned by Howard Holdings) from Nama via Savills for about 2m.

If theres a clear run through planning for this new unified proposal, the developers say work could begin as early as April, generating 200 construction jobs.

News of the application was welcomed by Cork Chamber of Commerce CEO Conor Healy, who said the city centre was close to running out of quality available office space for inward investment: Its very welcome news for Cork to have a project of this quality and scale proposed by developers with their reputation, in the heart of the city.

The 50m development will have twice the office space as City Quarter, across the river on Lapps Quay. Figures now being tallied are expected to show 500,000sq ft of Cork offices was accounted for in 2013 a higher take-up than in any year in the boom.

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€50m office block could be biggest built in Cork