{"id":412428,"date":"2026-04-22T21:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412428\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:59:19","slug":"legacy-furniture-superstore-the-loft-hits-the-market-for-e6m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412428\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy furniture superstore The Loft hits the market for \u20ac6m"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n THE Loft, a landmark Cork city centre furniture store with strong development potential, has hit the market with a \u20ac6m guide price.<\/p>\n

The vendors of the well-known premises, the Herlihy family, have already run the rule over potential future uses \u2014 guided by Douglas Wallace Architects \u2014 and have prepared a preliminary scheme for a mixed-use project that includes retail space and student accommodation.<\/p>\n

Rodney Herlihy said a lot of thought and early design work had gone into exploring options for the substantial 21,000 sq ft premises on a high-profile 0.5a (0.2ha) site, between Cornmarket St and North Main St.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were fortunate to have architectural input and design from the late Hugh Wallace, whose vision helped shape the initial concept for the site,\u201d Mr Herlihy said.<\/p>\n

The owners and their professional team recently held what they described as a \u201cpositive\u201d pre-planning consultation with Cork City Council in respect of the proposed development, which the owners said was \u201ca carefully considered architectural intervention that seeks to respond respectfully to the historical, urban, and human context of this prominent city centre location\u201d.<\/p>\n

The proposed redevelopment of what is a protected structure includes the retention of the existing elevations of The Loft building on Cornmarket St and North Main St and would comprise a part three, part five, and part seven-storey building, featuring communal amenity spaces in three courtyards, a public outdoor seating area, general landscaping, and boundary treatments.<\/p>\n

Mr Herlihy said as \u201ca substantial amount of preparatory work\u201d was already completed, it would enable the purchaser \u201cto move forward quickly\u201d. A comprehensive pre-planning pack for the potential development \u2014 which is subject to planning permission \u2014 is available.<\/p>\n

While the current proposal is for ground floor retail and 206 student bedspaces, Mr Herlihy said the property was \u201csufficiently flexible to accommodate a range of alternative uses, including hotel or hostel development, subject to planning permission\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its versatility should \u201cbroaden its appeal to a wide range of local and international investors\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

\"FrontFront facade of The Loft Furniture Superstore<\/p>\n

The site is zoned \u2018ZO 5, City Centre\u2019 under the Cork City Development Plan 2022 \u2014 2028 where primary uses, include, but are not limited to, retail, residential uses, community uses, offices, hotels, cultural and leisure facilities, education and healthcare institutions and facilities, and uses that contribute to \u2018the vibrancy and diversity of the city centre\u2019.<\/p>\n

The current proposal\u2019s focus on student accommodation is against a backdrop of an acute undersupply of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in Cork, a university city with 29,000 fulltime students, where recent research by commercial real estate agents Knight Frank\/Sherry FitzGerald indicates that there are 3.5 students for every one PBSA bedspace available.<\/p>\n

In recent years there\u2019s been a strong focus on delivery of PBSA in the city with close to 3,500 new student beds delivered since September 2019.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The appetite for this type of development shows little sign of abating: In February, builder\/developer BAM lodged a planning application for a 503-bed student accommodation on Sullivan\u2019s Quay, on the site previously occupied by the now demolished tax office. Closer to The Loft, on North Main St, occupancy looks strong at 279-bed Coleman Court PBSA, completed by BMOR in 2023.<\/p>\n

Sherry FitzGerald\u2019s new commercial arm, Knight Frank, who are representing The Loft\u2019s vendors, said the site\u2019s city-centre location should mean \u201ca strong prospect for the scheme to be used for short term tourist or visitor accommodation outside of academic term times\u201d \u2014 if new owners opted to pursue PBSA.<\/p>\n

David McCarthy, of Knight Frank, said notwithstanding the owners positive engagement with the council with regard to the potential development of a PBSA scheme, it was their opinion that there would be support for a broad range of alternative uses that align with the Cork City Development Plan goals for compact growth and mixed-use generation, given the site\u2019s strategic location, combined with its city centre zoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe site can accommodate high quality development that will contribute positively to the urban fabric and meet market demand for centrally located accommodation such as PRS (private rented sector) and hospitality services such as a boutique hotel, micro hostel and aparthotel,\u201d Mr McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of what a Loft conversion to student accommodation might look like<\/p>\n

The up-for-sale premises \u2014 a mainly single storey, part two-storey building, with an external car park area to the north of the store \u2014 sits on what was historically known as Peter\u2019s Bazaar, a market-style complex close to the Bazaar Market on North Main St, developed by Cork Corporation in the 1840s and opened in 1851. Over time, Peter\u2019s Bazaar evolved and was redeveloped into a more conventional retail space, with The Loft becoming the main occupier. The premises \u2014 which has dual frontage onto Cornmarket St and North Main St \u2014 is close to the former Square Deal premises on Washington St, which members of the Herlihy family sold for a reported \u20ac5m in 2017 and which has since been redeveloped as Br\u00f3ga House, a \u20ac35m PBSA, backed by global real estate investment firm Round Hill Capital and managed by UK-based student accommodation provider Nido, who also manage other student schemes in Cork City.<\/p>\n

\"Br\u00f3gaBr\u00f3ga House on Washington St was formerly Square Deal furniture store and is now student accommodation Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

The Loft is close to where Cork City Council has recently invested in a city centre regeneration project on Grand Parade and South Main St, with the latter street in the running for a new event centre. UCC is approximately 1km from the site.<\/p>\n

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Mr McCarthy said the property \u201cpresents a very rare opportunity to acquire a substantial high-profile site and deliver a landmark city centre scheme of significant scale\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect strong interest from local, domestic, and international parties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cornmarket St itself has seen some significant regeneration and is poised for more if developer Denis McBarron goes ahead with proposals to convert the former Paintwell store by Portney’s Lane into apartments and a caf\u00e9, for which he has permission.<\/p>\n

\"'Shawlies'‘Shawlies’ during a busy Christmas week on Cornmarket St\/Coal Quay, 1933. The premises now known as The Loft is in the background, left.<\/p>\n

Cornmarket St runs into the historic Coal Quay area, which was traditionally home to street traders, many of whom were \u201cshawlies\u201d \u2014female traders who wore black shawls over their head and shoulders.<\/p>\n

\n DETAILS: david.mccarthy@ie.knightfrank.com T:021 2337810<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Loft, a landmark Cork city centre furniture store with strong development potential, has hit the market with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,31915,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-412428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-commercial-property-munster-to-let","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}