A €20m 'landmark' office building is planned to transform Cork's quays

The Camden Place building will house as many as 500 people when it is completed.

By Paul O'Donoghue Reporter, Fora

A NEW ‘LANDMARK’ office building that will be able to hold up to 500 workers is planned to attract major companies to Cork and rejuvenate the city’s northern quays.

Developers Stone Work Properties Ltd announced this morning that work on the site on the Camden Place site on Cork’s riverfront is set to begin next month.

After demolition starts in February, work on the 65,000 sq ft, five storey building is expected to take 12 months.

The €20 million development will incorporate the existing Venetian-style façade into its new design and will provide 150 building jobs during its construction phase.

Camden Place faces the Cork Opera House and Emmet Place and is adjacent to Apple’s city centre location. It is also adjacent to the Carrolls Quay multi-storey car park, where 100 parking spaces will be made available.

02_Rive_View_Evening Camden Place
Source: F22 PHOTOGRAPHY

Foreign investment

The developers said that the floors plates will range between 9,000 sq ft to 16,500 sq ft, a size which they said is “favoured particularly by the FDI (foreign direct investment) and tech sectors”.

Letting agents Cushman and Wakefield and CBRE are jointly marketing Camden Place.

Award-winning Cork architecture firm Boyd Barrett Murphy-O’Connor designed the building, which the letting agents claim “will lead the rejuvenation of the city’s northern quays”.

05_Atrium A render of the Camden Place interior
Source: F22 PHOTOGRAPHY

They also say that Cork “has become a favourite with multinationals seeking to locate in Ireland, and in more recent years in city centre locations in order to attract suitably skilled staff”.

“This is due in part to the lower costs compared with Dublin, and access to skilled graduates from University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology, and the wider southern area,” they said.

Cushman & Wakefield director Sean Healy said that the new Camden Place development will “redefine Camden Quay and encourage further investment in the area”.

CBRE director Alan Moran added: “This is a statement development for Ireland’s second city. We see the new building as being symbolic of the resurgence of the city’s quays as active centres of commerce.”