HQ Developments will build a new urban quarter on a six-acre site at Horgan鈥檚 Quay. The city-centre site adjoins Kent Railway Station and has a 160m frontage onto the River Lee.
The team proposes a 鈧�160m (拢141m) mixed-use waterfront development comprising eight new buildings, the restoration of existing buildings and the design of new public-realm space. At peak construction time there will be 450 workers on site. Plans were lodged this week; subject to planning permission it is expected that work on the site will start in 2018.
Three office blocks with a gross area of 37,000m2 providing space for up to 5,000 employees are among the key elements of the proposed Horgan鈥檚 Quay development. The blocks will be six to eight storeys high and constructed on a phased basis for ease of delivery.
There will also be 237 apartments with an area of about 22,000m2 across four blocks to be built for the private rental market.
A 136-bed hotel with a rooftop restaurant will stand on the north-west corner of the site and the JV is also proposing about 2,900m2 of ancillary restaurant and retail accommodation to service the new city enclave. There will also be a cr猫che included in the development.
A focal point of the development will be the restoration of three significant industrial conservation buildings, the Station House, the Carriage Shed and the former Goods Shed. 聽
This development aims to make Kent Railway Station more accessible to the City Centre and the river and will bridge MacCurtain Street with Kent Station. Provision has been made for more than 5,000m2 of public realm space. The Southern Plaza will open onto the River Lee facilitating pedestrian routes through the site to the new train station entrance and new steps will be provided up to the Lower Glanmire Road.
The Horgan鈥檚 Quay site is owned by CI脡 and the agreement for its development is based on a structured income sharing finance deal whereby the developer will obtain a 300-year ground lease in return for the higher of an annual rent or alternatively 10% of the market rent from the new buildings.
BAM Ireland CEO Theo Cullinane said: 鈥淚n addition to opening up an old industrial area of the city to habitable and public friendly space and enhancing the River Lee as a public amenity, this investment is creating much needed residential and office space and, indeed, jobs for Cork. I hope that this development will be a catalyst for additional much needed investment in this quarter of our City.鈥�
The design team for the project includes Wilson Architecture, Reddy Architecture & Urbanism, Aecom and O'Mahony Pike Architects, the overall master-planner for the entire scheme. The engineers are Arup, Murphy Matson O' Sullivan Consulting Engineers and EDC. The conservation architect is John Coughlan Architects.
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