{"id":654969,"date":"2026-10-15T00:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654969\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T00:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:10:10","slug":"leisureplex-demolition-looms-at-premier-inn-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654969\/","title":{"rendered":"Leisureplex demolition looms at Premier Inn site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demolition work is to begin at the former Leisureplex site in Cork City\u2019s Victorian Quarter in preparation for the construction of the city\u2019s second Premier Inn hotel.<\/p>\n

The brand\u2019s owners, the UK-based Whitbread group, have confirmed to the Irish Examiner that demolition experts \u2014 Limerick-based O\u2019Kelly Bros Civil Engineering Ltd \u2014 are due on site this month.<\/p>\n

\"CGICGI of the 174-bed Premier Inn hotel that will be built on the site of the Leisureplex, below, at the junction of McCurtain St, Brian Boru St, and Summerhill.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Kelly Bros will install site hoarding and temporary support structures before demolishing the building walls and concrete slab in November.<\/p>\n

A section of the historic former postal sorting-office fa\u00e7ade on Brian Boru St \u2014 which is a protected structure \u2014 is due to be restored and retained and will be incorporated in to the 174-bedroom hotel development, which will also include a guest-focused restaurant and bar fronting on to Brian Boru St.<\/p>\n

The design will conserve elements of the former art-deco cinema fa\u00e7ade, recognising the heritage of the location.<\/p>\n

\"DemolitionDemolition of the Coliseum Leisureplex on the corner of MacCurtain Street and Brian Boru Street, Cork, is “imminent”.<\/p>\n

The site opened as the Coliseum cinema in 1913, which operated until 1964. A postal sorting office \u2014 known as Bridge House \u2014 was built on the site in 1940 and both the former cinema and sorting-office buildings were incorporated into the Leisureplex entertainment complex in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"ViewView of the Coliseum Cinema MacCurtain Street Cork March 1964.<\/p>\n

The section of the new hotel on MacCurtain St will be clad in red brick to tie in with other Victorian buildings in the vicinity, while the use of white\/cream stone cladding and brick work will reference the materials used for Trinity Presbyterian Church, a landmark building at the bottom of Summerhill North.<\/p>\n

In preparation for construction of the new hotel, ground remediation works are expected to begin before Christmas and continue into the early new year, before the site is handed over to a principal contractor at the end of January.<\/p>\n

Whitbread is in advanced discussions with a shortlist of contractors to build the hotel, with an appointment expected to be confirmed before Christmas.<\/p>\n

The interior of the former leisure and entertainment complex has already been cleared out. The complex closed in December and had been a popular spot for 10-pin bowling, pool and snooker, quasar, and a games arcade.<\/p>\n

A planning application for a similar-style venue on Half Moon St in the city centre was recently lodged by John Cleary Developments (JCD) Group, with a decision due next month.<\/p>\n

At the 0.5-acre Leisureplex site \u2014 acquired by Whitbread in 2024 for \u20ac5.5m \u2014 all of the approvals needed to begin demolition have been secured.<\/p>\n

That marks \u201ca major milestone for our second Premier Inn in Cork\u201d, said Emma O\u2019Shiel, project and programme manager for Whitbread in Ireland, who added that they can now move \u201cfrom planning to delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Shiel said the redevelopment of the Leisureplex site in to a hotel would create jobs and \u201csupport the continued regeneration of the Victorian Quarter\u201d, which has become one of the city\u2019s liveliest streets<\/p>\n

The build project will cause some traffic disruption at what is a busy inner-city junction, with one vehicular lane on Brian Boru St, as well as a cycle lane, earmarked for closure for the duration of the works.<\/p>\n

\"CGICGI View of the planned hotel.<\/p>\n

The Leisureplex redevelopment follows on from the Whitbread group\u2019s first venture in to Cork, a 187-bedroom Premier Inn it developed on Morrison\u2019s Quay, which opened in January 2024, with the creation of 40 jobs. Ms O\u2019Sheil said its success had \u201cexceeded expectations and reinforced our confidence in the city as an attractive destination for both business and leisure travellers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Figures compiled by the hotel-occupancy monitor website trending.ie show occupancy rates in Cork city are on an upward trajectory, moving from 75% last year (Bank of Ireland, hospitality sector figures) to an 80% average for the year to date, with a notable bounce in September, up to 90%.<\/p>\n

The latest occupancy rate (published this week) for Whitbread\u2019s regional UK estate, which includes Ireland, is 81%.<\/p>\n

Whitbread has been investing heavily in Ireland since launching its Premier Inn brand\u2019s expansion programme in 2018.<\/p>\n

The company currently operates six trading hotels across Dublin and Cork, with a further two flagship city-centre hotels in Dublin City centre scheduled to open in early 2027.<\/p>\n

Its Ireland hotels made Stg\u00a322m (\u20ac26m) in the first six months of the group’s financial year (March to August), up from Stg\u00a318.7m (\u20ac22.2m) for the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demolition work is to begin at the former Leisureplex site in Cork City\u2019s Victorian Quarter in preparation for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,25976,61,60],"class_list":["post-654969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-property","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654969","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=654969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}