Who owns the derelict site with a Mercedes buried under a pile of cookers in the centre of Cork city?

“This is a community and it needs to have something done with it. And if someone is sitting on it, it’s wrong.”

The site on the corner of Coach Street and Peter’s Street, Cork city. Credit: JJ O’Donoghue

No two derelict sites are alike; they all have their own unique biography.

However, in the end, they are all rather depressingly alike. Still, the corner site on Coach Street and Peter's Street in Middle Parish stands out, not so much for its appearance: it has buddleia bursting out from the walls, graffiti on the side doors and walls, broken windows—all the hallmarks of an abandoned, derelict, run-down building.

It's what lies inside, though, that truly stands out.

Poke your head through the broken windows, and the first thing you see is rusting cookers, likely abandoned years ago. But as your eyes adjust to the dim light, what catches your attention is an abandoned Mercedes car. Tripe + Drisheen were told that it's a classic, but it's hard to tell as it's half buried under a sea of kitchen appliances.

Nobody's quite sure how long the site, which is connected to a yard, has been been left to stew like this, but the corner site has been on Cork City Council's Derelict Sites Register (DSR) since February 2012. Bear in mind that it can take years before a derelict site is placed on the Council's "limbo list," where it incurs levies.

According to the DSR, which is maintained by the Council, a Michael Quirke owns it. The value of the site is listed at €90,000. During our investigation, we were told that SHARE, which is located nearby, owns the site. However, Noreen Dorgan, SHARE's head of services, confirmed to Tripe + Drisheen that this is not the case

Two seperate derelict sites close by are owned by non-profit entities: Penny Dinners is listed as the owner of a derelict site on Adelaide Street, while the Mercy Hospital owns a derelict site on Sheares Street.

Currently, Michael Quirke is listed on the DSR as the owner of the Coach Street derelict site, but Mr. Quirke told locals that he no longer owns the site.

Terrence O'Leary, an auctioneer with Murray Browne, confirmed with Tripe + Drisheen that Mr. Quirke sold the site, possibly five or six years ago.

However, while Mr. O'Leary is aware of the current owner of the site, he would not reveal their identity owing to GDPR reasons. Mr. O'Leary confirmed that he had relayed concerns from residents in the area to the owner regarding the state of the derelict site, the possibility of a fire starting there, and the fact that it is attracting anti-social behavior.

What lies beneath? A classic car rests inside the derelcit building Credit: JJ O’Donoghue

Growing concerns

“People do break in there,” George Patterson, chairman of the Middle Parish Community Association told T+D, adding that he’s put boards up across one of the entrance ways to “stop keep people getting in underneath it.”

“I wanted to prevent the street from being considered slum-worthy. People live across the road from the site, and they have children. We have drug addicts and dealers who go down the those roads because they feel safe because there’s dereliction there and there’s not so many people about.”

On occasion, they'll fall asleep in people's doorways, George said.

“I wanted to try and help them prevent that.”

Mr. Patterson said there have been plenty of meetings in which residents have outlined their concerns, but "not really a lot comes from them."

"The only thing we can do is look at these derelict buildings and try to make them a little bit safer, and that's what we are trying to do now."

Carla O'Connell moved into the Marsh, as the area is known, almost three years ago; from her living room, she can see the derelict site on Coach Street.

As she told T+D, "It's a wonderful site with huge potential, in a city center area. The continued dereliction, particularly in an architectural conservation area, is frankly ridiculous."

"The area is crying out for young residents to keep the Marsh alive, and there's an enormous appetite for community engagement. It seems like a no-brainer to address the dereliction and reduce the risk of fire and antisocial behavior in one fell swoop."

Mr. Patterson has spoken with the original owner who told him he sold it three years ago. There are, as Mr. Patterson pointed out, more questions than answers at this stage.

"I think a little more information needs to come to light about who owns it, and then there needs to be a solution put forward."

"This is a community, and something needs to be done with it. If someone is sitting on it, it's wrong."

Mr. Patterson said the vacant and derelict sites registry system doesn't need to be so convoluted, a point that campaigners for a central registry of derelict properties have been arguing for years.

At one stage, Mr. Patterson offered to buy the site over 10 years ago but was told by the owner that the site was with the bank and there were "huge logistical problems with it."

The view inside and outside the Coach Street site. Credit: JJ O'Donoghue

T+D asked City Hall for more details about the ownership of the site, as well as how much has been collected via levies on this site. We were told that "the ownership of this structure is being actively investigated. Once investigations have concluded, Cork City Council will examine all options available related to the site."

Derelict Sites Levies are charged at 7% of the market value of a property annually. These levies, administered and collected by local authorities, are supposed to deter property owners from allowing vacant buildings to fall into disrepair and to encourage long-term vacant homes to be brought back into use.

The Coach St site would have incurred levies running into thousands of euros over the course of its time on the Derelict Sites Register.

This month, Cork City and County Councils announced that they had secured €6m and €5m, respectively, from a national fund of €150m to tackle dereliction.

Figures released by Revenue in 2022 revealed that at least 7,000 homes in Cork city and county were classified as vacant properties. Nearly half of these homes had been lying empty for 12 months or more at the time of the report.

A site with huge potential.

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