€2m town centre site in Kenmare could be feather in cap of Quills

Hardware firm McCarthy's move opens up prime 0.8 acre site for new uses

Thu, 06 Mar, 2025 - 10:47

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Pictures John Roche

A TOWN centre site in the very heart of top Munster tourism town Kenmare has come to the open market offering redevelopment and investment options — or could it be a feather in the cap of next-door neighbours Quills?

Up for sale just off The Square and The Green and next door to a major Quills outlet in Kenmare (or Neidín, meaning little nest in Irish) is the former JR McCarthy hardware store and yard: it includes a old cut limestone dwelling which was the former rents office of the Lansdowne estate who controlled much of this planned town around a core triangle of trading streets and lands around it.

Close knit: will next door neighbour Quills be a jumper in the bidding?

The substantial offer at 2 Park Street is only available now as McCarthys have vacated, having relocated from their long-time base in the town out to the Gortamullen Business Park on the Killarney road several years ago, trading as Topline McCarthys.

The property mix is freshly up for sale with Cork City-based estate agent Michael McKenna, with an expected guide price of approximately €2m.

It comes with a valuable planning grant for a mix of uses, as well as an investment opportunity, he says.

There’s a modern build, with distinctive high gables offering 5,000sq ft of retail and overhead space, plus an additional 5,000sq ft of stores to the rear, on 0.33 ha/0.81 of an acre, with main entrance to the cleared yard on Park Street, with a separate entrance alongside to the former Lansdowne estate rents office.

Former rents office of the Lansdowne Estate included. It's a protected structure

Kerry County Council has approved planning for two retail units, a restaurant, 10 short-term rental apartments, and the conversion of the historic limestone-built rents office which is a protected structure to a luxury rental house.

Kenmare is a hugely popular tourism town, on both the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Beara routes. It is served by a range of accommodation from B&Bs to self-catering, crowned by the Park Hotel — long associated with hotelier Francis Brennan — and which changed hands over a year ago.

A peaky blinder? Feather in the cap for Quills, if they are interested

McCarthy’s former hardware premises and yard adjoins a large Quills Woollen Market store fronting Main Street, one of at least seven with others in Killarney (three), Sneem, Glengarriff, and Bantry, as well as on the Aran Islands.

Selling agent Michael McKenna says there is immediate local interest in this rare approximately €2m Kenmare offer, from three or four parties already: The question is will Quills be the top jumper?

DETAILS: McKennaProperty.ie