LDA in talks to partner on ambitious Marina project as first house visible at former Cork hospital site

Last week, Glenveagh sought to increase the size of its Marina Quarter development when it lodged an application with Cork City Council to build 176 apartments across two blocks. This is in addition to the permission it was granted in 2021 to build 1,002 apartments across 12 blocks, ranging in height from four to 14 storeys, as part of a €450m scheme. In its application, the developer said the site was already under construction.

According to Glenveagh, the latest application would allow them to finish out the entire Marina site, once part of the Ford motor factory, and more recently, the location for entertainment venue Live at the Marquee. 

The parcel of land in question (0.84ha/2a) is the last remaining plot on the site, which is next to Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in what’s known as the Polder Quarter, between Centre Park Road, Monahan Road and the Marquee Link Road.

While finishing out 266 homes at the former St Kevin’s Hospital site in Shanakiel is a priority for the LDA, along with getting work underway on building 350 homes at a former ESB site in Wilton, the agency is actively pursuing ways of maintaining its housing delivery pipeline in Cork City.

This includes talking to developers like Glenveagh Properties and BAM/Clarendon on Horgan’s Quay, where the LDA is backing the city’s first large-scale apartment development since the Elysian in 2007. Construction is in full swing on Horgan’s Quay with 302 apartments in the pipeline.

Up in Shanakiel, the first fully formed townhouse is visible and Mr O’Neill said they hope to begin marketing the first 97-house phase after Easter next year.

“We would hope that after Easter 2025 that we’d be able to come out with our marketing plan in relation to the units that are going to be delivered and what will be available for rent and for sale,” Mr O’Neill said.

“And we are hoping by the back end of next year that we will have a number of tenants in place, or homeowners, as the first residents of St Kevin’s since the hospital closed 20-odd years ago,” he added.

The mixed tenure scheme of approximately 46 townhouses and 220 apartments/duplexes, will be available as cost rental, and affordable and social homes, with a breakdown yet to be determined, and at prices not yet decided.

Mr O’Neill confirmed also that they are having ongoing positive discussions with the ESB about developing the site of its former Marina generating station on Centre Park Road where they are hoping to build 600 homes. Having successfully negotiated the purchase of an ESB site in Wilton this year, for which it launched draft plans to build 350 homes last month, Mr O’Neill said they were “actively pursuing” the ESB’s Marina site.

However it would be a “far bigger task” than the Wilton site, given the likely need for decontamination and demolition of a number of “significant buildings”.

“I don’t think there is anything insurmountable, but given its history - that it was a coal burning power station - it’s expected there will be contamination and with that, depending on the levels, comes increased costs which must all be understood before we jump into it,” he said.

In relation to a nearby Bord na Móna site on Monahan Road, where the agency hopes to build 300 homes, Mr O’Neill said the site was “not without its challenges, but it is progressing well, and we’ve had very positive discussions with Bord na Móna”.

For now though, the focus was “on getting St Kevin’s finished and getting Wilton activated”.

While MMD Construction are delivering the first phase of homes at the south-facing St Kevin’s site (97), the LDA will go back out to tender for phase two, with the intention of having made their selection in time to ensure that there is no break in the build programme. Mr O’Neill said they were keen to maintain a pipeline of delivery in Cork.

“We are putting a huge amount of effort into it from a regional balance point of view and obviously a second city point of view,” he said.

The LDA was very invested in the docklands, he said.

“The likes of Horgan’s Quay will be the first large-scale apartment development in Cork since 2007, so it just underlines the necessity of delivering these large apartment schemes to supplement all of the great commercial schemes that have already been delivered. ” The apartments will be a mix of cost rental, affordable sale and social housing.

In relation to the recent refusal by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission to fertiliser firm Gouldings to develop port facilities in Belvelly which would have freed up the site they currently occupy on Centre Park Road — where O’Callaghan Properties had plans to build 1,325 apartmentsre — Mr O’Neill said it was “disappointing for the docklands”.

“But it puts more emphasis on the likes of the Horgan’s Quay development and on doing what can be done in the docklands, because the docklands needs to happen, full stop.

“It’s about figuring out how that can be done as expeditiously as possible.”