Fresh planning application lodged for Marina Market 

A fresh planning application has been lodged by R Properties Cork Limited seeking permission to maintain their use of the Marina Market site as a market/food emporium.

As reported in today's Irish Examiner, it is believed that R Properties Cork is applying for permission for the change of use from warehouse or distribution use to a market and food emporium at the site on Centre Park Road in the city.

It is understood the latest planning application aims to address concerns raised by Cork City Council in its decision to refuse the original application last year.

At the start of last year, R Properties Cork Limited lodged a planning application seeking permission to maintain their use of the site as a market/food emporium with a further request to expand the market’s footprint, creating an event and function/gallery space as well as a coffee roasterie and a health and lifestyle store.

They also sought permission to construct a mezzanine to facilitate seating within the food emporium and the removal of nine car parking spaces to facilitate the provision of a parcel pickup depot.

R Properties Cork Limited’s application also included a request for permission to provide 44 bike parking spaces and a bike rental hub.

The planning statement accompanying the application last year asserted that Marina Market is a “bustling addition to the currently underutilised Central Docklands”.

“A disused warehouse in [the] city’s port area has been transformed into a thriving and vibrant food and craft market attracting people of all ages.” “Repurposing old industrial buildings in a similar way could breathe new life into urban communities,” the statement contended.

However, the plans were turned down by Cork City Council last November with council planners citing public safety on Kennedy Quay and the market’s proximity to a Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) site as key factors.

The council said it considered the road infrastructure on Kennedy Quay to be “insufficient for the existing and proposed use which will generate increased pedestrian, cyclist, and vehicle volumes on Kennedy Quay over and above historical use”.

Planners said they considered that would lead to an “increased risk of pedestrian and vehicular conflict on Kennedy Quay” that would be “likely to endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard and obstruction of road s and be detrimental to road safety”.

They also said the proposed development “falls almost entirely within the Middle Land Use Planning Zone of the neighbouring COMAH establishment Gouldings Chemicals Ltd and as such is located in an area where it is necessary to limit the risk of there being any serious danger to human health or the environment.” 

More than 30,000 signatures were gathered for an online petition to save the market following Cork City Council’s initial refusal for permission.

R Properties Cork Limited subsequently lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála in December 2022, but that appeal has since been marked as invalid.

Despite these planning issues, it has been business as usual at the Marina Market which has been operating without planning permission since it opened in the former Southern Fruits Distribution Company Warehouse in 2020.

It has since expanded to become a popular destination in the city, employing over 300 people and attracting thousands of visitors each week.