Pizzeria makes No 14, Parnell Place well worth the dough

Thu, 26 Oct, 2023 - 15:21

Tommy Barker

With a brand new food company arrival on the ground floor after a €500k tenant fit-out, and a language school in on a new lease upstairs, the now fully-tenanted property at 14 Parnell Place in the heart of Cork city is up for sale as an investment, guiding at €1.95m.

The 11,000 sq ft three-storey corner property in the heart of the city, near the bus station and facing down Oliver Plunkett Street, is listed fresh this month with agents Johnny McKenna and which saw new occupiers Sano open a 140-seat pizza restaurant there with an official VIP night early this October.

The two upper floors of 3,400 sq ft each at No 14 are now let to Erin School of English, also Dublin-based with two schools in the capital one in North Great Georges Street and one in Mountjoy Street and in the business for 18 years.

Sano pizza restaurant at 14 Parnell Place Cork city deal by Lisney. Operators Raymond Tony MacHugh have spent €500k on a fit out of the former Sliced eatery

The letting to Erin School of English was negotiated in March 2022 at a current passing rent of €120,000 pa exclusive, rising to €135,000 exclusive in Year Five: previous occupier was Nations, a very long established Cork language school which had been at No 14 for several decades.

Sano has its 4,300 sq ft ground floor restaurant on a 10-year lease from June 2023, at a current passing rent of €70,000 pa just negotiated by Lisney.

Sano currently has two restaurants in Dublin — in Ranelagh and Temple Bar — and one in Glasgow for their 48-hour proven sourdough pizza bases, fired in 450 degree ovens with an attractive entry price point, and will have up to 60 staff at peak.

They took over from local Cork company Sliced, which closed in the city centre post-covid (but is still trading in Ballincollig and which took over No 14 Parnell Place from Asian restaurant Panda Mama in 2017.

At the combined rent of €190,000 pa, the sale price guide of €1.95m reflects a net initial yield of 8.86%.

The building at No 14 Parnell Place dates to the 19th century and, notably, has a retained old carved Regency or Georgian era street name plaque above the restaurant entry recalling its earlier address as Nelson’s Quay.

The 18th century plaque predates the building and was integrated into the brick façade, and the street/quay was also previously called Warren Place and George’s Quay, recalling the days when this city block was an islet in Cork city’s earlier, canal-like days.

More recently, the city’s 20th and 21st century central business district (CBD) has moved east from the South Mall to the north and south quays, with new office blocks on either side of the Lee, others planned nearby, as well as hotel plans for Parnell Place (Tetrarch Group) and tall buildings mooted and cleared planning at The Prism, and a tall hotel at the Port of Cork site.

No 14 adjoins the old historic Cork Savings Bank at the junction of 1 Lapps Quay and 16 Parnell Place, now occupied by UCC’s CUBS and IMI Centre of Executive Education, after UCC bought the building for €1.42m (also via Lisney) after a short period in the ownership of Cork City Council.

DETAILS: Lisney 021-4275079