RedevelopmentSite: A 1.1-acre site with potential for the development of a hospital or medical complex has come on the market in Cork. Located beside Cork University Hospital, selling agent Hamilton Osborne King has set a guide price of €15 million for the land.

The site's developers could benefit from Government policy which calls for a shift of public hospital beds into the private sector through private medical facilities. This makes this site prime territory for the application of Government thinking on the issue of providing more beds for the health services.

The Bishopstown site would be ideal for a new private hospital and may also have a use as a convalescent facility connected to the Cork University Hospital, according to the agent.

Architectural assessments of the site indicate a gross build area of about 9,900sq m (106,563sq ft) across two, three, four and five-storey buildings. These would follow the natural lines of the site and allow for about 250 car-parking spaces.

Tax legislation provides for the availability of capital allowances over a seven-year period for the construction of private hospitals or convalescent facilities. This beneficial tax incentive has already led to the construction and planning of a number of private hospital developments, including the Beacon Clinic and hospital in Sandyford, Dublin, and the Blackrock Clinic-led Hermitage Hospital near Liffey Valley.

The Government focus on allowing the private sector to help make up the shortfall in chronic and long term beds adds to the expected value of this site.

Last July, the secretary general of the Department of Health and Children wrote to the chairman of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Liam Downey, asking that 1,000 of the 2,500 private beds in the hospital system be transferred out to private facilities over the next five years.

The policy direction given to the HSE provides for the development of private hospital facilities on public hospital sites or immediately adjoining such sites. There is particular interest where the two facilities could be connected via a tunnel.

The site in question has been notified to the HSE for the construction of a private hospital. Yet it could also provide a venue for a general practice medical centre, a specialist unit for private sector medical treatments for plastic surgery or a laser eye clinic, for dental services or perhaps a sports injury centre.

Medical consultants from Cork University Hospital could also consider the site for a private campus with shared consultant facilities. The site was assembled by the Cork-based Kelleher family for investment purposes. It included a former Esso petrol station and then the family acquired two houses with large gardens immediately behind the station. These are located on the boundary of the Cork University Hospital campus.