Biggest public housing project in Cork since ’80s moves a step forward

Building contractors Murnane O’Shea are completing enabling works on the 5.7-hectare (14-acre) site where the now-derelict Victorian mental asylum St Kevin’s still stands, despite having suffered extensive fire damage in 2017.

Once the enabling works are done, at a cost of circa €1.5m, with an expected completion date of the end of December, the next step will be to stabilise St Kevin’s, a protected structure, which is earmarked for 60 apartments. Tenders are in for the circa €1.5m building stabilisation contract and are currently being evaluated, with work on St Kevin’s expected to start in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.

Tenders for the €30m first phase of house-building are due to be returned by the end of January. Currently five bidders have prequalified.

Construction of the first 97 units in a development earmarked for 265 homes (designed by Reddy A+U) is due to begin in Q2/Q3 of next year, with an anticipated construction period of 18-22 months, which would see the first homes available early in 2025. The second building phase is expected to be procured in 2024.

The dramatic transformation of the commercially challenging site, which has probably the best views in the city, is part of an aggressive Government drive to maximise the supply of housing on public lands, through the Land Development Agency (LDA), which is the State’s primary channel for the development of social and affordable housing under its Housing for All strategy, which aims to build 300,000 homes nationwide by 2030. Housing for All is one of a series of Government measures to try and ease the housing and homelessness crisis.

The Shanakiel project, which received planning permission in April 2021, is the only fully LDA project outside of Dublin where work has begun on site. The most ambitious to date is at Shanganagh in Dublin, where ground has been broken on a scheme to deliver almost 600 affordable homes, split into cost rental, affordable purchase, and social housing.

The St Kevin’s project, on a hillside site across the river from the Kingsley Hotel and County Hall, will deliver, on a phased basis, a mix of three- and four-bed townhouses (46); 36 ground-floor two-bed duplex apartments; and 36 three-bed duplex townhouses with ground-floor access; 18 ground-floor two-bed duplex apartment, and 18 four-bed duplex townhouses above them; 51 apartments in three walk-up blocks and 60 apartments in the converted St Kevin’s Psychiatric Hospital, which will also accommodate a large creche, with scope for 72 children.

While the first two phases will concentrate on house building, a third phase is expected to see the conversion of the 630 sq m former St Kevin’s chapel building to provide a new office enterprise centre, with hot-desking facilities.

The chapel, along with 21-bay, four-storey-over-basement St Kevin’s, designed by architect William Henry Hill and a former link corridor connecting St Kevin’s with the former Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital (now Atkins Hall) on an adjacent site, are the only three structures that will remain, with the other five buildings on site now either demolished or in the process of being demolished. They include a 19th-century former mortuary; a two-storey former matron’s residence; a building known as St Dympna’s; a collection of buildings to the rear of St Dympna’s and the two-storey former doctor’s house (St Brigid’s Hostel/Teach Bríd), demolished following an application from Irish Water to facilitate the construction of a new water main connecting Shanakiel Reservoirs with the new €40m Lee Road Water Treatment Plant.

Not all of the former link corridor will be retained. Its lovely walls are being reduced to sill level (it has been a hotspot for antisocial behaviour), but the central archway will be retained and the corridor is expected to become a seating area/amenity walkway.

The enabling works by Murnane O’Shea, which started in August, are on track (and on budget, according to senior project manager Donal Kennedy) to be completed by the end of the year. The works have involved demolition of non-protected structures and removal of asbestos; the felling and protection of trees (around 90 were removed, some had come down in storms, others had ash dieback disease, and more are being recycled with plans to use the recycled material in play areas); the removal of Japanese knotweed; and the relocation of grazing horses. A statue of Our Lady remains on the site, but could join the pantheon of Irish Moving Statues, as she’s looking the worse for wear.

Phase 1, due to get under way next year, will include the building of 37 townhouses, 30 duplex apartments, and 30 duplex townhouses, predominantly affordable-for-sale and social units.

While St Kevin’s will be stabilised, work on its conversion to apartments will not take place until phase 2, which will involve the construction of 168 homes.

An LDA spokesperson said there would be “people living on the site, prior to the start of phase 2”.

“Creating homes for people to live on the site as soon as possible is what it’s all about,” the spokesperson said, against the backdrop of the ongoing housing crisis.

The apartment blocks will be cost-rental and retained and managed by the LDA. The LDA spokesperson said the idea is “to achieve savings of 25%-30%” for renters — in other words they will pay up to 30% below the prevailing market level. The spokesperson said there will be “no individual sales” within these managed blocks.

Mr Kennedy said St Kevin’s is a “very interesting site that has its challenges”— it slopes steeply from north to south, falling more than 45m between the Shanakiel Rd entrance to the rear and the southern boundary, above the Lee Rd. The amount of developable land within the 5.7 hectares is 4.2 hectares (10.4 acres) and the net density of the scheme is c63 housing units per hectare. The entire floor area of the scheme will cover 24,000 sq m and there will be 241 car parking spaces, 563 bike spaces, and provision for electric vehicles and car-sharing.

The section of land in front of St Kevin’s is a landscape protection zone. There are plans for woodland walks, play areas, multi-purpose games areas and terraces for viewing the city.

The LDA spokesperson said the apartments in St Kevin’s will have “the best views in the city” because of the way the site is tiered.

The agency has previously said that the Shanakiel Ridge site “has the opportunity to be an exemplar housing development, offering housing to all”.

The LDA also has its sights trained on the Cork Docklands, earmarked for massive development over the next two decades, including potentially 10,000 homes.

With more than 146 hectares (360 acres) of land, the Cork Docklands is set to be Ireland’s largest regeneration project.