A decade after the last Mass was celebrated at the former St Vincent’s Church in Sunday’s Well and following a change of heart by potential purchaser UCC, the landmark Cork city building is back on the market with the guide price slashed in half to €375,000.

The imposing 170-year-old red sandstone building on Cork city’s northwestern hills is being sold by the Vincentian Order, which ceased religious ceremonies at the Gothic-style 12,000 sq ft premises in 2016.

Likely to have diverse buyer interest, the prominently sited building, on the shoulder of Sunday’s Well Road, adjoins a former Vincentian Order seminary, owned since 1999 by the UCC Department of Music, close to its North Mall campus.

Included in the offer is the 8,813 sq ft (818 sq m) church, a protected structure, at street level, and below it, on the lower ground floor, a large hall (2,926 sq ft/272 sq m) formerly used as a community centre. The site itself, measuring 0.58 acres (0.235ha), consists mainly of the footprint of the church, as well as a car park with 18 spaces. A licence agreement with the car park operator — with a revenue split agreement in place — is renewed on an annual basis.

Potential future uses for the church, now available to buy at half the price (€375 k in 2026 v €750k in 2018) include the “obvious potential for another religious body”, said selling agent Gerard O’Callaghan of Lisney. Interested parties in the past included evangelical Christian groups and the Orthodox Church.

Other potential uses include a funeral home — Jerh O’Connor Funeral Homes bought The Grange Bar and Restaurant for more than €1m in July, albeit they have yet to reveal their plans — or for use by an institution or an educational body or as a hospitality venue. Conversion to residential/apartments is an option too, with planning hurdles/fire safety regulations to overcome.

“When you consider that it’s a 12,000 sq ft premises with 18 car parking spaces within a short walk of the city centre, you could say it’s the bargain of the century,” said Mr O’Callaghan.

“However the price acknowledges that the buyer will probably have to spend significantly to turn it into a usable and viable property, especially if they went down the road of residential.”

Built in the 1850s and extended in the 1880s, the church has some magnificent features, including painted Stations of the Cross by Le Dien school in Normandy; a caen stone and marble pulpit, carved by Henry Lane; magnificent stained-glass windows by the likes of Mayer & Co of Munich and William Wailes of Newcastle-on-Tyne. An organ with of 36 stops and over 2,000 pipes, installed by Telford’s of Dublin, is in need of repair. 

Notable architects involved included John Benson, who designed the church, with later work done by ecclesiastical architect George Goldi, and Samuel E Hynes, who completed the façade The property is being sold withartifacts in place and it will be for the buyer to deal with on completion.

The property first came to market in 2018 along with a separate 1.1a (0.45ha) site – once used as the Blue Demons basketball court, – below Sunday’s Well Road. At the time, the church and site had a combined €1.5m price guide/€ 750k per individual lot.

UCC was reported as the buyer of both for less than €1m, in 2019. However, it has now emerged that UCC formerly withdrew from the sale process in May this year. UCC declined to comment.

Both church and site are now back on the market, separately, via agents Lisney. The guide price for the south facing site is 600,000 and the agents say its significant level changes “offer the opportunity for a distinctive, terraced design approach” potentially a landmark private residence or apartments, subject to planning.

DETAILS:

E: gocallaghan@lisney.com T: 0214275079