Locking in success: Finding value buying a pub in Cork as almost 50 bars for sale

Or they may consider calling time, and transforming a pub into a new home.

The Irish pub trade is changing dramatically. This week, The Outpost in Bishopstown went on the market with an asking price of €1m. Selling agent Sam Kingston of Casey & Kingston believes it represents a real opportunity to develop a trade in one of the city’s busiest suburbs. But he says the future may be very different for many other pubs currently on the market.

“There are about 50 pubs for sale in Cork city and county at the moment, and I'd imagine that at least 20% of them are non-viable as pubs, just because of location, ageing, and demographics,” said Mr Kingston.

“It's a different market. I’m in this business for 40 years and in that time, I've sold a lot of pubs. A lot of those that I sold years ago, in Shandon St and places like that, are now closed and have been redeveloped into residential accommodation, and other uses.” 

Pubs, like youth, don’t last forever. The names of pubs in Cork still live in folklore, but are no longer pulling pints. Names like Nancy Spains, The Western Star, The Belfry, The Swan and Cygnet, all mean something to one Cork generation or other but, like a night of revelry, are now just a fond, if slightly hazy, memory.

Pubs like The Evergreen have now joined that list, with the Turner’s Cross establishment currently being redeveloped for residential.

Mr Kingston believes The Outpost isn’t quite ready to join that list. “It's 5,000 square feet on quarter of an acre selling for €1m – that is value at €200 a square foot and if you look at the Bishopstown area right, there isn't a huge amount of pubs there. There’s a lot of new development being done in Waterfall nearby. It might well become a commercial development, but there's a strong possibility that it will work as a pub.” 

Just like picking lottery numbers, there’s no winning formula for making a pub successful, or whether a pub will be redeveloped into housing, office, or other use.

Rob Coughlan of property firm Cohalan Downing believes that entering the trade remains attractive to many entrepreneurs if they can get the funding in place. "There is certainly still people who want to operate pubs and get into hospitality but one of the big challenges is actually raising money to make that entry to market,” he says.

“This could be somebody who is working in the trade already and wants to do their own thing, but doesn't have the capital to to get it off the ground just yet. They have to compete against parties who might look at it developing for an alternative use, which could be a conversion to residential, office, or AN Other. So the end user ends up being somebody with an alternative-type use because these people can raise the money.” 

Cohalan Downing is the selling agent for the Bull McCabes premises on the Kinsale Road towards Cork Airport, on the market with an asking price in the region of €650,000. The pub, which has been closed for the past 18 months, has gone sale agreed and the deal is at an advanced stage. It remains to be seen whether its future remains in the hospitality sector.

The former Annies Bar on Sundays Well, which also operated as a restaurant has also sold in recent times, and its future may also lie away from the trade.

One pub that certainly will be remaining in the sector is Electric, at the end of Cork’s South Mall and touching on to the Grand Parade. Developed by Ernest Cantillon and put up for sale in 2023, the art deco-style building was sold by Cohalan Downing for more than €2m, and will have a new lease of life as it reopens as a bar this year.

Mr Coughlan also notes that things can move in the other direction, with premises being reimagined as bars for the first time. A former travel agent on Grand Parade is in the process of redevelopment for hospitality, while on the other end of Oliver Plunkett Street, the former Brennan’s Cookware shop has been redeveloped as a successful wine bar, in a buzzing hospitality corner of the city centre.

Already this year, some of the most renowned premises in the city have come on the market. The Flying Enterprise complex on Sullivans Quay is selling with Cohalan Downing with a guide price of €5.3m. The Hawthorn by The Lough went on the market this month, for the first time in 40 years, with an asking price of €1.6m. Premises that could tick the right boxes for continued success.

However, trade in the future of the sector for many other premises will be challenging. Sam Kingston believes that food is increasingly a key factor for pub businesses. “Traditionally in Ireland, pubs were for drinking, and food would have been a very small part of trade. A lot of the younger guys that are finding more success are probably chefs and restaurauteurs rather than just pure publicans.” 

The success of brothers Liam and Ciarn Horgan with their Dacent Munch venture is a case in point, with a successful food truck the stepping stone to entry to the alcohol trade. Having set up roots in Mayfield and Carrigaline, they are now leasing the renowned 4,500 sq ft Fox & Hounds premises in Ballyvolane, which will operate at first solely as a pub but with plans to venture into food.

Adding food to a trade is no guarantee of success though, especially if it is not done right. “The last thing some people want beside them when they are out for a few pints is a family carvery,” said one insider.

Nevertheless the move to gastro and food-focused pubs is likely to continue, with new entrants to the market likely to want to build on the success of ventures like the Anglers in Carrigrohane.

At the other end of the scale is the nightclub and entertainment pub sector. The previous government had grandiose plans to revive the Irish night entertainment scene but finding a hit among nightclubs remains a difficult task.

Last year, Cork saw the mother of all bar sales with the Reardens complex and the Oliver Plunkett going to market for a price tag close to €30m. Casey & Kingston currenlty has the Cubins complex in Cork on the market for €3.5m. “There’s certainly a possibility Cubins could be used for something beyond a nightclub. It could easily become a residential development where it is, in a prime location. But the days where you had seven or eight nightclubs in Cork City are gone," said Mr Kingston.

And ultimately,  just like the lottery win, things always come back to money in all sectors of the hospitality and entertainment market. "This is a challenging sector to try and raise money in, particularly if you're coming into it green," said Mr Coughlan.

In uncertain times, and amid an accommodation crisis, that will likely mean pubs and clubs transitioning to residential will be a continued trend.