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Planners have given New York-based Tower Holdings the green light for a 34-story, € 140 million hotel and shopping complex that will be the tallest building in the Republic.
Tower Holdings is part of the New York building empire built by Ballinskelligs, Kerry-born Kevin O’Sullivan, who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s.
On Wednesday, the Cork City Council gave the company permission to build a 34-story hotel, shops, a tourist attraction and a micro-distillery on Custom House Quay in the city.
The 34-story tower will be the tallest building in the Republic, beating Dublin’s Capital Dock, a 22-story structure completed last year, and the 17-story Cork County Hall.
Plans
Plans include proposals to rebuild customs warehouses on the site as a maritime museum and commercial area, along with a distillery on the property’s eastern edge.
The developer also intends to restore the Cork Custom House building and incorporate it into the project. The development, on a former Port of Cork site, is estimated to create up to 800 jobs.
Tower Holdings welcomed the news that the council had endorsed the proposals. A spokesman added that he would have to “thoroughly examine all planning conditions and certain points of detail to establish their effect on the scheme.”
Submissions criticizing the plans last May argued that the proposal should be considered in light of the likely impact of Covid-19 on demand for hotel rooms in the city.
Staff in the London office of multinational architect Gensler, who earn fees of around $ 2 billion (€ 1.7 billion) a year, worked on the hotel’s design with local firm Henry J. Lyons.
“We work closely with the Cork City Council throughout the design process to ensure that we meet all of their requirements, particularly in relation to the conservation and integration approach to existing historic buildings,” said the Tower spokesperson.
The global chain Marriott will manage the hotel when it is completed. The group made a presentation to the Cork City Council planners supporting the project. It will be the first Marriott business in the city.
Marriott has a 31-story hotel in Long Island City, New York, built by Times Square Construction, the contracting division of O’Sullivan’s businesses.
Tower is also working on the construction of a 20 million euro office at Parnell Place bus station in Cork, which is close to the Custom House Quay site. In March work began on that building, which will have 15 floors.
Projects
Tower Holdings Group is Mr. O’Sullivan’s business development arm and operates both here and in the US, while Times Square Construction is responsible for contracting.
New York’s Times Square projects include commercial and apartment buildings in Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island.
The group works mainly in medium and high-rise buildings that combine apartments, shops and offices.
He has recently completed work on projects on Lexington Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and in the city’s financial district.
Mr. O’Sullivan founded the group in 2006. He and his family are well known in the Irish community in New York and in Co Kerry.
Developers have started to focus on Cork in recent years. Clarendon Properties and the construction group BAM Ireland are building a hotel, apartments and shops on Horgan’s Quay, near the city’s train station. The Dublin group, Press Up, is online to manage the 114-room hotel.
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