Cola site fizz given green light

Cork's largest student accommodation development has been granted planning permission.

Cork City Council this week gave planning permission to London company Future Generation to build a 623 bed facility on the former Coca-Cola bottling site on the Carrigrohane Road, also known as ‘the Straight Road’.

Planning permission had already been granted to Future Generation in 2017 for a smaller development featuring 92 apartments and 484 bed spaces.

The new plans, however, will increase the amount of rooms to 167 and the amount of bed spaces to 623, making it the biggest student accommodation development Cork has ever seen.

The modified plans will require an increase to the building’s height, ranging from six to ten storeys, where the previous proposal was in the range of four to seven storeys.

Speaking in November of last year, Andrew Southern, Chairman of Future Generation, said: “Ireland is one of the fastest growing destinations for international students in the EU and we are thrilled to kick-off our European development programme here in Cork.”