€620k for former station

It would have been too costly for City Hall to purchase a former garda station on MacCurtain Street, it came to light this week.

The building was owned by the OPW but was put up for sale by auction, which took place at the end of November 2019. Lisney was looking after the sale and a spokesman confirmed to the Cork Independent that it went under the hammer for €620,000, adding that the property attracted “very strong interest” and “competitive bidding” at the public auction.

The building came up for discussion during a Cork City Council meeting after Green Party Cllr Dan Boyle queried if the council could have bought or done something with it to keep it in the public use. Paul Moynihan, a director of services with City Hall, described the building as “essentially a jail” and it would have taken a lot of money to modernise the building.

He said that given the limitations of the building, and what it would cost to bring it up to a standard of use, meant that it wasn’t feasible for the council to purchase the former garda station which is located at 58 MacCurtain Street. Mr Moynihan said that the property had not been in use for a number of years and reconfiguration and refurbishment would have been required to bring the building back to active use. It was clear, he said, that substantial capital and revenue investment would have been required.