CORK City’s Elysian can be seen as a barometer, of sorts, of the Irish property market over the past two decades.
The three-acre Leeside site for the landmark tower, right next door to City Hall, was sold by An Post 20 years ago to O’Flynn Construction after a €35m development of a new regional sorting office just east of the city: prior to that it was a city rail station on Albert Quay.
Development on what was to become Ireland’s tallest building (a 17-storey record it held for nearly 10 years,) began in 2006 to a design by Wilson Architects. Builders for the €150m mixed-use scheme over a double basement were Cork-based PH Hegarty & Son.
Going up? Lift shafts of the Elysian Tower in December 2006. File picture: Denis Scannell
Construction of the project was steady, with a major sales launch in September 2008 — just days after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers bank in the US, with its domino effect going global, rattling the world of banking and finance.
That collapse drained the then-booming Irish property market of cash, the borrowed, over-oxygenated lifeblood that fuelled the Celtic Tiger era beyond its repayment means.
Kitchen at 108
The Elysian’s launch was a glittering, ‘fin de siecle’ affair, with 20:20 hindsight , attended by the great and the good, politicians, sports stars, media, bishops, and putative buyers, with prices at the time quoted from €375,000 for a one-bed to as much €2m for the best, a multi-level penthouse of 2,600 sq ft.
In the event, the jitters and ripples coming across the world’s financial markets from September meant very few sold to the targeted owner-occupiers – perhaps to a half a dozen? – before all market confidence evaporated nationwide.
Included in the handful of sales was a triple penthouse for a reported €1.8m, to a Cork-based business family.
Among the handful of other mid-level buys was that of apartment No.108, on the 11th floor, acquired by a family in Dublin, and now the first public re-offer of an individual apartment in the entire Elysian complex of 211 apartments.
Living area with kitchen and balcony
It’s priced at €825,000 by agents Ann O’Mahony, now head of Sherry FitzGerald Cork, and Johnny O’Flynn, who say it’s in turnkey condition, with quality finishes, and outstanding city views, with dual-aspect wraparound balcony.
Two of its three bedrooms are en suite, it has support concierge services and secure basement parking for two cars, with near-private lift access (each lift shaft serves only a handful of apartments in the 17-storey tower).
Concierge services and two basement parking spaces with €835k-guided No 108
The Price Register shows scant comparisons: No.109 appears twice on the Price Register, in 2013 and in 2019, at €850,000 each time, but wasn’t on the open market and is reckoned to have been a private asset transfer rather than a genuine third-party sale.
City views
Also showing is No.41 in 2015 at €652,625; again, it hadn’t been on the market.
Thus, the arrival of No.108 is guaranteed to stir wide interest at its €825,000 price guide, for a top unit just shy of 1,500 sq ft.
That’s pennies by comparison with the Elysian’s biggest recorded sale: The Price Register shows a listing at €67.7m in 2018, ostensibly for No.1 The Elysian.
One of three bedrooms
That, however, was for the sale of the vast majority (well over 200) of the 211 apartments in the development, across six to eight storeys in the main, plus the even more exclusive tower ones.
All-in, the development with commercial and retail at the lower levels had sold at the time to Kennedy Wilson for over €87m.
The view from No 108 The Elysian on the 11th floor. Picture: John Roche
Kennedy Wilson still owns it and manages it as a top-quality residential asset, with rents for the biggest units previously reported at about €4,000 a month, and the majority in the €1,200-€3,000 a month bracket.
In a roll call of the ‘Big Beasts’ lumbering around the post-crash period, the Elysian saw ownership/control move from the O’Flynn Group to Carbon Finance (a subsidiary of Blackstone Group) in a €1.8bn sale of assets by Nama, though all repayments had been maintained.
Holy Trinity Church and the Elysian Tower, Cork viewed from the ramparts at Elizabeth Fort, Barrack Street Cork. Pic: Larry Cummins.
By 2016, O’Flynn and Blackstone “reconciled their differences” and the original developers, who’d always envisaged selling on the development once completed, came back to finish the fit-out of remaining unlet units, now all fully occupied, owned by Kennedy Wilson, with the majority of the three-acre site’s street level ground floor also occupied, including with a gym, an Aldi, medical clinics, offices, and The Bookshelf cafe/restaurant.
At the time of conception and delivery, the Elysian was billed as a Cork City ‘gateway’, truly in a pivotal position.
Its pointed end looks looks south along the link road towards the airport, and the other facades face north to the river and hills stacked with buildings ranging over three centuries; then, west to east, from the ‘old’ city to the emerging ‘new’ Cork, with major developments (mostly offices so far) having followed in its wake.
The old docklands, from Horgans Quay and Kennedy Quay and along the Marina (and Tivoli) are set to hold many thousands more apartments in coming years, due from the likes of O’Callaghan Properties, Clarendon, Glenveagh, and the Land Development Agency.
Ahead of them is/was the Elysian which, despite its temporary (now resolved) travails, is a fully finished entity, very well managed and immaculately maintained, with its cladfinishes standing up to time and exposure to the elements,especially the greenish tower cladding and studs, almost like Connemara marble in tone.
The Elysian is no longer
Ireland’s tallest building, a title it had held for a decade. Its developer, Michael O’Flynn, always noted that was never the intention in any case, as there were plans in the 2000s for taller ones
(Howard Holding wanted to do 30/20/10 storeys in Atlantic Quarter in Cork) and higher again elsewhere.
The tallest at present is Capital Dock in Dublin, at 22 storeys and 79m, above the Elysian’s 17 storeys/71m height, (excluding its light sable beacon).
Today, Kennedy Wilson has the tallest structures in both Cork and Dublin, while Belfast’s 28-storey Obel Tower is higher again, at 85m, finished in 2010.
The selling agents for the Elysian’s No.108, Sherry FitzGerald, say it has “uninterrupted panoramic skyline views over Cork city centre and beyond”, with contemporary interiors, and bird’s eye views of the acre of enclosed garden, done day one in Japanese style, with graceful weeping trees, pathways, seating spots, copper sculpture, and even a waterfall.
That garden does, indeed, fit the cliche of ‘urban oasis’ and No.108 also has 180-degree views of neighbours’ rooftop ‘penthouses’ on the complex’s lower, wrapping wings, as well as near unparalleled city vistas, rooflines, and the Lee delta.
On gaining access, there’s a near-magnetic pull to the windows, and it’s only after a walk around the entire space and framing windows that the eye starts to take in finishes from walnut and hushed, carpeted floors, stone worktops, top quality appliances, Sliderobes, well-finished bathrooms (three), utility/store, and main suite with dressing area.
For new owners, they’ll appreciate the setting, the brightness, the building’s prestige and privacy, thanks to the elevation, and basement entry point if driving, plus the city conveniences and proximity if whizzing out on foot past the concierge’s desk, or visiting the complex’s own fitness suite, gym, or business pod at garden level.
Shared garden of one acre. Picture: John Roche
VERDICT: High-end apartment living has found favour at last in Cork if the setting and buildings hit the right note, with the €1m barrier breached at Lancaster Quay. Another €1m-plus apartment sale beckons in Blackrock, as well as the Elysian’s own €1.8m triple-unit purchase back on day one. Leeside’s lofty Elysian now is as intrinsically ‘Cork’ as County Hall was since the 1960, and this is an extremely rare chance to buy in with private ownership.
