UCC feathers Crow's Nest with students as c€30m 'Jenga' blocks finally open
UCC's Crow's Nest student accommodation with the Mardyke Arena and running track in the background Picture: Larry Cummins
CORK’S funkiest student accommodation is finally coming on stream two years later than planned at the site of the former Crow’s Nest bar in Victoria Cross.
All 255 bedrooms in the c€30m four-block development are already booked out for the upcoming academic year, with student arrivals imminent.
In the pipeline since 2017, the university had originally hoped to open it to students in time for the 2021/2022 academic year. However those plans were scuppered by building site closures during the covid-19 pandemic. It was due to open then the following year, with UCC taking bookings in April 2022 for the 2022/2023 September intake, but money had to be refunded as the project wasn’t finished in time.
A spokesperson for UCC said: “Unfortunately, as with many capital projects, the building of the Crow’s Nest was delayed due to the impact of the pandemic on the construction industry.
“Bookings had been taken for last semester. In these cases, students were offered either a refund or an alternative place in another UCC Campus Accommodation complex”.
Operated by UCC subsidiary, Campus Accommodation, the cost for a double ensuite bedroom at the Crow’s Nest for the full academic year of 37 weeks is €8,325 with an additional €650 for utilities. The price is considerably higher than rates quoted for older UCC purpose-built student accommodation, where single ensuite rooms come in at around €6,000. The cost of the Crow’s Nest development, according to a source, was in the region of €30m.
Designed by award-winning McCullough Mulvin Architects and built by Sisk for UCC, the Victoria Cross “jenga-style” towers, are just one of a number of new purpose-built student units to come on stream this year.
Also up-and-running in time for the September intake is Coleman Court on the former Munster Carpet site on North Main Street. The c€25m, 280-bed development by London-based Bmor, a company with Irish directors, is operated by private property company Mezzino, with rates starting at €208 per week for a twin ensuite room. Earlier this week, a gate went up on Coleman’s Lane, North Main Street’s last ungated medieval laneway rejuvenated under a Reimagine Cork scheme, as part of the student housing development.
Meanwhile Bottleworks, the most ambitious student accommodation project of them all, on the site of the former Coca Cola bottling plant on the Carrigrohane ‘Straight’ Road, is advertising for its first student intake from January 6, 2024.
The 623-bed, 10-storey development led by Northern Ireland firm Farrans Construction, on behalf of US real estate investment management firm CA Ventures, is just west of Cork County Hall and down the road from the Crow’s Nest.
The standard of accommodation on offer at these new student units – as well as others like €53m 0’Mahony Pike-designed 554-bed Ashlin House by Clancy Construction on Bandon Road and €35m 280-bed John Paul Construction-built, Nido-operated Bróga House at the site of the former Square Deal furniture store on Washington Street - is a far cry from the grotty bedsits of bygone years.
The new units, some backed by private global real estate investment and asset management firms (eg Ashlin House was backed by Round Hill Capital in a joint venture with NBK Capital, and Round Hill Capital also backed Bróga House) offer state-of-the-art accommodation and on-site facilities such as gyms, study rooms, residents’ lounge and roof terraces.
The opening of the Crow’s Nest will bring to 1,534 the number of beds operated by UCC across six complexes in the city – they also operate nearby Victoria Lodge and Victoria Mills, with previous developers of such well-established schemes including Fleming Construction and Paul Montgomery.
Additional UCC accommodation includes University Hall, also in Victoria Cross, Mardyke Hall and Castlewhite apartments.
Now that it is finished, the Crow’s Nest fulfills the architects’ vision of creating a new landmark building at a key junction of Cork City, which for years held nothing but the charred remains of the Crow’s Nest bar and restaurant, destroyed by fire in 2004.
The new accommodation, just west of the UCC campus, adds to an already high concentration of student housing in the Victoria Cross area of the city, with more in the pipeline.
Bellmount Developments’ Séamus and Pádraig Kelleher, owners of a successful motor tyre network, have planning in place for a 137-bed development on nearby Orchard Road and were also granted permission in 2021 for a €30m 243-bed student complex on a former garage site in Victoria Cross.
Cork City has a vibrant student population of about 35,000.
