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THE demonstrable increase in student accommodation has been one of the key areas of delivery for the construction industry in Cork City this year, with the biggest scheme yet, on Carrigrohane Road, nearing completion.
The city’s skyline has altered considerably in areas where towering student accommodation blocks slot in alongside low-rise properties.
There are less obtrusive developments too, such as at Lancaster Quay, where O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) finally finished out the redevelopment of a seven acre site, acquired in the early noughties from Jurys’ Hotels.
The company had completed the first phases of its Lancaster Gate scheme just ahead of the 2008 crash, delivering 151 apartments in three blocks, but had mothballed the remainder when the crash came. This year, the two final blocks were completed in a partnership that saw OCP’s first engagement with an approved housing body, Clúid. And in another first for the city, the scheme is primarily cost-rental, (73 of the 88 units, with 15 for social housing).
It’s made rents more affordable: at c45% below local market rates, tenants pay €990 per month for a one-bed apartment and €1,100 for a two-bed. OCP had previously indicated that rents from private sector tenants would have had to average over €2,000 per month to make the development viable, largely due to rising construction costs.
Brian O’Callaghan, Managing Director of OCP said the cost rental model was “an innovative scheme” that assisted in the delivery of the 88 apartments, and that its continued roll out “has the potential to make a significant contribution to the achievement of housing targets”.
However he added that the model “does face challenges at present because of construction cost and interest rate increases. which need to be addressed.”
Directly across the road from Lancaster Gate is another new development, €35m Bróga House, a 280-bed student accommodation complex built by John Paul Construction at the site of the former Square Deal Furniture store on Washington Street.
Backed by global real estate investment, development and asset management firm Round Hill Capital (Ireland), they are also the backers (in a joint venture with NBK Capital) of €53m 554-bed five-block O’Mahony-Pike designed Ashlin House on Bandon Road, which Clancy Construction completed in time for the 2022/2023 academic year.
Heading further west, to Victoria Cross, the eye-catching Jenga-style tower blocks designed by award-wining architectural firm McCullough Mulvin, and inspired by the “tower houses” of the classic Tuscan hilltop town San Gimignano, will add 255 beds to UCC’s existing student bed complement of c1300.
Just beyond nearby County Hall, is the biggest student accommodation scheme of them all, Bottleworks, a 10-storey 623-bed Farran Construction development on Carrigrohane Road, former site of the Coca-Cola bottling plant, which was capped off this month. The client is US firm CA Ventures, a real estate investment management firm and the plan is for first student intake in the 2023/2024 academic year.
Back on the North side of the city, a Clúid partnership with Cork City Council is delivering 112 apartments on Thomas Davis St, in five three to five storey blocks. One block has been designed to provide a 36-unit sheltered housing project for older people.
Back on the southside, a 26-unit private complex on the site of the former Glenanaar pub on the Boreenmanna Road, is just reaching completion while a “right-sizing” project at former commercial office block Springville House, on Blackrock Road, will deliver for older adults who want to “right-size their homes.
The latter, a €10m social housing project which will deliver 35 homes, is a Cork City Council/Tuath Housing (AHB) project, delivered by MMD Construction.
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