JCD Group has secured four significant tenants across its Evergreen and Blarney business parks in Cork, including Harvey Norman, which has taken the first completed building at Little Island's Evergreen Business Park. The 65,000 square foot unit will be used as a warehouse, close to the retailer's existing department store at Eastgate Retail Park.

JCD Group, headquartered in Cork and founded in 1996, has developed more than 2.65 million square feet of commercial property in Ireland, spanning office, industrial, healthcare, data centre and retail schemes.

The other three lettings are at Blarney Business Park, where CWS Workwear takes a 30,000 square foot building, JB Roche, an aviation supplier, takes a 20,000 square foot unit, and Daly Industrial Supplies takes a further 30,000 square foot building.

JCD delivered a full turnkey fit-out for each occupier, including pallet racking installation, office fit-outs and mechanical and electrical works. Denis Mulcahy, commercial property director at JCD, said this delivers economies of scale and cost certainty while streamlining the move-in process.

The new tenants join existing occupiers including Merck, DHL, doTERRA, Nisbets, Park Place Technologies, FedEx and Paardekooper at the 70-acre Blarney Business Park, where JCD has completed 13 buildings totalling more than 550,000 square feet since acquiring the site in 2018.

At Evergreen Business Park, three of four planned buildings are now complete, with Silverstream Packaging occupying E400 and a further 45,000 square foot building, E500, ready for tenant fit-out.

The structural driver is JCD's speculative build model, constructing shell and core space ahead of lettings and adding turnkey fit-out only once occupiers are secured, cutting lead-in times in a market where industrial vacancy stands at just 1.6 per cent.

"Demand in Cork continues to significantly outstrip supply, with industrial vacancy rates remaining at historically low levels," said Niall Guerin, director at Savills, adding that occupiers "continue to seek expansion opportunities" focused on high-quality modern accommodation.

For the sector, the Evergreen and Blarney lettings show how speculative industrial development paired with turnkey fit-out is helping Cork keep pace with occupier demand outside Dublin.

Source: Irish Examiner / JCD Group / Savills