Comer Group is an international property development firm established by brothers Luke and Brian Comer. The company has its headquarters in London, and is mainly active in the UK and Ireland.
Comer Group is an international property development firm established by brothers Luke and Brian Comer. The company has its headquarters in London, and is mainly active in the UK and Ireland.
Luke and Brian Comer were plasterers from County Galway, Ireland, who moved to London in 1984 and expanded into property development. [1] They set up the first of their many property development companies in 1985. [2] Comer Group Limited was incorporated in 2003. [3]
The growth of the brothers' business in Ireland was helped by investments in stalled 'Celtic Tiger' developments and buying up heavily discounted properties. [4] By May 2023, the brothers were running a property portfolio with an estimated value of over €1 billion. [5]
The companies' UK projects included the conversion of the listed Friern Hospital (formerly Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum) to residential accommodation in the mid-1990s as Princess Park Manor, [6] redevelopment of the former Royal Masonic School for Boys in Bushey, Hertfordshire as Royal Connaught Park, [7] a housing development in Portland, Dorset, [8] and a proposed conversion of a former office block in Southend into residential apartments. [9] In Ireland, Comer projects include redevelopment of the University College Dublin veterinary college in Ballsbridge, [4] redevelopment of the Corrib Great Southern Hotel in Galway, [10] completion of a partly-built tower block, the Sentinel, in the Sandyford district of Dublin, [10] [11] and redevelopment of an apartment block in Ballysadare, County Sligo. [10]
In July 2023, Comer launched an affordable home division, Dovepark Properties, to manage and maintain units across the group's UK residential developments. [12]
In September 2023, Comer Homes Group was ordered to demolish a build-to-rent development at Mast Quay in the Woolwich Dockyard area of southeast London. The waterfront development was between an earlier tower scheme (c. 2005) and the Woolwich Ferry carpark. Completed in late 2022, it comprised towers of 23, 11, nine and six storeys, but differed significantly from its original design. Comer only proposed revisions to the design in December 2022 when construction was nearly finished. [13] However, noting 26 main deviations from the original planning permission granted in 2012, Greenwich Council ordered Comer to demolish the blocks. [14] [15]
Apartments marketed as having disabled access were found to have steps to the outdoor space; there were missing roof gardens; a garden area had become a carpark after the planned underground parking was never built; a child's play area was missing. [14] [16] At the time of the enforcement notice the council believed that 78 of the development's 204 apartments were occupied. [17] The council said "the only reasonable and proportionate way to rectify the harm created by the finished Mast Quay Phase II development to the local area, and the tenants living there, because of the changes made during its construction, is the complete demolition and the restoration of the land to its former condition." [14]
Comer Homes Group expressed surprise and disappointment at the council's decision, and said its statements were inaccurate and misrepresented the company's actions, adding: "We will be appealing against the enforcement notice and look forward to robustly correcting the inaccuracies and addressing the council's concerns." [18]
In a planning inquiry which opened in July 2024, Comer claimed changes in company policy following the Grenfell Tower fire had led to it breaching planning permissions at Mast Quay. Greenwich council said the change to the façade cladding was just part of one of the 26 ways in which the development differs from the agreed permission, highlighting changes to the overall design, poor wheelchair access and the absence of promised commercial space, car parking and landscaping. [19] Tenants in the buildings called on the council to scrap plans for demolition, saying "it is wholly unreasonable that the remedy to this problem is for a perfectly good building to be demolished and for current tenants to be evicted". [20]
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area.
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential, office building, or other functions including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as tower blocks and may be referred to as MDUs, standing for multi-dwelling units. A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.
Georgian Dublin is a phrase used in terms of the history of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings:
St Katharine Docks is a former dock and now a mixed-used district in Central London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and within the East End. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. From 1828 to 1968, it was one of the commercial docks that made up the Port of London. It is in the redevelopment zone known as Docklands and is now a popular housing and leisure complex.
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich - originally in north-west Kent, now in southeast London - where many ships were built from the early 16th century until the late 19th century. William Camden called it 'the Mother Dock of all England'. By virtue of the size and quantity of vessels built there, Woolwich Dockyard is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards of seventeenth-century Europe'. During the Age of Sail, the yard continued to be used for shipbuilding and repair work more or less consistently; in the 1830s a specialist factory within the dockyard oversaw the introduction of steam power for ships of the Royal Navy. At its largest extent it filled a 56-acre site north of Woolwich Church Street, between Warspite Road and New Ferry Approach; 19th-century naval vessels were fast outgrowing the yard, however, and it eventually closed in 1869. The former dockyard area is now partly residential, partly industrial, with remnants of its historic past having been restored.
Ballymun is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was state-of-the-art at the time, comprising high-rise tower blocks and flat complexes, residents were moved in years before shops, schools and other infrastructure were fully ready, and the area became well known for both a strong community spirit and considerable social challenges. Ballymun has several sub-districts such as Sillogue, Coultry, Shangan and Poppintree, and is close to both the Republic of Ireland's only IKEA store and to Dublin Airport. The area is the source of one Dublin river, and parts lie in the floodplain of another, and there are a number of parks.
Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it faces Trafford across the canal.
108 North State Street, also known as Block 37, is a development located in the Loop community area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. It is located on the square block bounded clockwise from the North by West Randolph Street, North State Street, West Washington Street and North Dearborn Street that is known as "Block 37", which was its designated number as one of the original 58 blocks of the city. Above-ground redevelopment is complete, but work stopped on an underground station, when the station was only partially complete.
Brighton Marina is an artificial marina in Brighton, England. It features a working harbour and residential housing alongside a variety of leisure, retail and commercial activities. The construction of the marina itself took place between 1971 and 1979, although developments within it have continued ever since. The marina covers an area of approximately 127 acres (0.51 km2).
The U2 Tower was a cancelled skyscraper which was proposed to be constructed in Dublin, Ireland. The site proposed was in the South Docklands (SODO) campshires, at the corner of Sir John Rogerson's Quay and Britain Quay, by the confluence of the River Liffey, the River Dodder, and the Grand Canal. The design announced on 12 October 2007 was by Foster and Partners. Reports suggested a building height of 120 metres, "well over 120 metres", and 180 metres, any of which would have made it the tallest building on the island of Ireland. The building was planned to be an apartment building, with a recording studio owned by the rock group U2 in a "pod" at the top. Construction was to begin in 2008 and end in 2011, at a cost of €200m. In October 2008, the project was cancelled because of the economic downturn at the time. Proposals to revive the plan were reported in July 2013. However, they did not come to fruition and the 79-metre, 22-storey Capital Dock development has since been built on the site.
Southampton City Centre is the commercial and organisational centre of the City of Southampton, and the transport hub of the city. Because Southampton is on the South Coast of England, the city centre is not at the geometric centre of the city, but at the southern extremity.
Ballymore Group is an Ireland-based international property development company. The majority of the company's employees and business activities are located in the UK.
Cressingham Gardens is a council garden estate in Lambeth. It is located on the southern edge of Brockwell Park. It comprises 306 dwellings, a mixture of four, three and two-bedroom houses, and one-bedroom apartments. It was designed at the end of the 1960s by the Lambeth Borough Council Architect Edward Hollamby and second architect Roger Westman, and built at the start of the 1970s. In 2012 Lambeth Council proposed demolishing the estate, to replace the terraced houses by apartment blocks. Most of the apartments would then be for sale to the private sector. The residents, those in Lambeth who wish to prevent the gentrification of the borough, and those who want to conserve what they believe to be important architectural heritage, are campaigning to prevent its demolition.
Spire London, previously known as Hertsmere House, is a construction project located in West India Quay, near Canary Wharf. Developed by Greenland Group and designed by HOK, construction on the tallest building of 67 stories commenced in 2016, and was targeted for completion in 2021.
Gold Fields House was a high rise office block in the Sydney central business district on the corner of Alfred and Pitt streets. Completed in 1966, it was one of the earliest high rise buildings in Sydney. The tower of 27 storeys was designed by Peddle, Thorp and Walker "as a balance to the AMP Building" constructed four years earlier in 1962 at the other end of Circular Quay. Together they created a "gateway" to the city of Sydney. It was sold for redevelopment in 2014 and demolished in 2017/2018.
Old Woolwich or Woolwich Central Riverside is an area along the Thames in Woolwich, South East London. It is the oldest inhabited part of Woolwich, going back to an Anglo-Saxon riverside settlement. When the demographic centre of Woolwich shifted south in the 1800s, the area became a Victorian slum. Most of Old Woolwich was cleared in the 20th and early 21st centuries to make way for industrial, infrastructural and other large-scale developments. Although most of the earlier buildings have been demolished, the area has retained some interesting architecture, including the Georgian parish church, the Edwardian foot tunnel rotunda and two cinemas of the 1930s.
Luke and Brian Comer are Irish billionaire property developers and the founders and owners of the Comer Group, a privately owned UK property development company.
Sandyford House is a large office development on Sandyford Road in Sandyford, Newcastle upon Tyne. It was the offices and meeting place of Tyne and Wear County Council from its formation in 1974 until it was abolished in 1986.
Clancy Quay is a residential development of houses and apartments in Islandbridge, Dublin, Ireland. The development and surrounds originally housed an artillery barracks, known as Islandbridge Barracks and later Clancy Barracks, before closing in 1998. Although it has a "quay" designation, it does not form one of the Dublin quays proper.
