Cork student accommodation to reopen after €25m upgrade

A 265-room property for students in Co Cork will open this week after having undergone an extensive €25 million upgrade.

The property at Copley Street in Cork city is controlled by Hatch Student Living with financial backing from Elkstone, a multi-family office based in Dublin. The pair acquired the property in February 2018 and set about upgrading a co-living property for students driven by increased demand in the city.

Hatch Student Living invests in the refurbishment of older properties and manages accommodation in Cork and Carlow. The company is focused on providing additional accommodation to meet the planned expansion in student numbers over the coming years.

When Hatch and Elkstone acquired the block it had 137 bedrooms. It has since almost doubled the size of the residence, located at what was formally the University College Cork school of architecture.

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Hatch is a relatively new player in the student accommodation market and was founded by Robert McNally and Richard Brierley. Both have extensive experience in the student accommodation sector in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

In addition to its Cork sites, Hatch has a residence in Carlow, which caters to the institute of technology there. Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr McNally noted that the company is scoping out other opportunities in all the major university cities. And, unlike their international competitors, they’re also looking at the regional towns in which institutes of technology are located. In Carlow, for example, the company is the main provider of student accommodation.

The refurbishment was designed by KLD, which created subspaces, or nooks, for social activities. There is also a gym, laundry and garden zone on site. Meanwhile, Hatch has created a smart online platform for online bookings.