In November, Cosgrave Property Group won House Builder of the Year at the annual Irish Building & Design Awards. Company Project Surveyor Paul Wallace told Building Ireland all about the success and the company that marked 40 years in business in 2019. Since its inception, Cosgrave Property Group has grown an excellent reputation throughout Ireland for the quality of both its residential and commercial developments.
Today the company is as busy as it has ever been since setting up in 1979 – when three brothers (Joe, Peter & Mick) began with a development of five houses in Farmleigh, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Fast-forward four decades later and the projects undertaken by Cosgrave Property Group continue to be distinguished by the achievement of exceptional standards of design, construction, finishes and landscaping.
Paul Wallace has been a key part of the company since joining it in 2004 and took the time to explain to Building Ireland about the projects they’ve been immersed in lately, as well as why he thinks business continues to grow more than 40 years later.
“We understand the value of our reputation and that we’ve always guarded it very carefully,” said Paul, a graduate of the University of Ulster, Jordanstown.
“The uncompromising standard demanded by Cosgrave’s has created a culture where premier skills have flourished and robust controls have been developed, resulting in some of the ‘best in class’ projects being brought to the market. Our clients know that and we have a lot of the same customers buying off us since the 1980’s right up to the present day. So there’s a lot of repeat business, and that’s down to the quality the company provides in its work and the reputation it has earned down through the years.”
Indeed the attention to detail at Cosgrave Property Group has been widely praised and is one of the reasons for the success of their developments and for the above average capital appreciation enjoyed by purchasers of their houses and apartments.
The company’s houses and apartments, when they come up for re-sale, are often referred to as ‘a Cosgrave built home’ which is the ultimate accolade.
Much of its present work is based in and around Dublin, where the construction market is booming again after a decade-long turnaround.
“Right now, our two biggest projects are in Dún Laoghaire and Santry,” Paul outlined.
“We’ve Blackwood Square in Santry which is coming up this year alongside the Cedarview Housing development that is on-going for us. We also have the final phase of our flagship Development in Dún Laoghaire (Honeypark & Cualanor) due to be completed in the next 18months.”
Once fully completed, these two Developments will see the erection of superb family homes surrounded by exceptional amenities and great transport links adjacent to established urban hubs .
Since the pursuit of perfection has always been a pre-occupation for the team at Cosgrave Property Group, from the overall vision guiding the creation of a great new neighbourhood to the choice of door handles, it is all carefully planned to deliver the finest homes possible.
It can been seen plain as day that the Santry project and the renowned Honeypark * Cualanor Developments represent the culmination of decades of experience, perfectly resolved living spaces, high quality specifications, sustainable construction and relentless quality controls to deliver reliable and highly efficient homes, while outside superb hard and soft landscaping makes the most of this splendid location on the grounds of the former Santry House and the Old Dun Laoghaire Golf Club Lands.
Another tick in the plus column for clients when it comes to choosing Cosgrave Property Group is the fact that the company continues to incorporate the latest in energy efficiency technology into their developments.
They firm received accreditation from Sustainable Energy Ireland in 2006 for their Lansdowne Gate development of 280 apartments.
The Government agency, Sustainable Energy Ireland, considers Lansdowne Gate as a milestone project demonstrating the benefits of a district heating system for residential development in Ireland.
The heat recovery ventilation system incorporated throughout this development was another energy efficient innovation, and was the first time such technology was incorporated in a multi-unit development in Ireland.
Michael Cosgrave, director at Cosgrave Property Group, was invited to make a presentation on “Energy Efficiency in Sustainable Development” to the National Housing Conference 2009 in Sligo.
Paul says the company has been “continually evolving” with regards to energy efficiency since Lansdowne Gate in ’06.
“The continued improvement in standards and results would not have been possible without the investment made by Cosgrave’s into the Research & Development process. As early as 2003 we identified the growing importance of the Energy Efficiency Performance of buildings and recognised that this was a sector of the industry that was going to experience major change. As part of Cosgrave’s initiative to address this ‘vacuum’ field trips for Cosgrave’s staff to Sweden, Denmark & Germany (which included a meeting with Mr. Wolfgang Feist – the man credited with coining the phrase ‘Passive House’) were organised to research methods used in Northern European / Scandinavian countries over the past decades. This extensive R&D process allowed the business to make educated and informed decisions when investing in ‘new’ systems and products were required to comply with the ever evolving Part L Regulations and avoided the pitfall which many other businesses fell into with regards ‘Eco-bling’ and non-compliance,” said the Projects Surveyor.
The strides made were recognised after Cosgrave Property Group was announced as winners at the Sustainable Energy Awards, 2013 & 2016.
The firm also earned success twice at the prestigious EnviroCom Awards, 2014 & 2016.
Since ‘Day 1’, the core strengths at Cosgrave Property Group has been their team of key people, the selection of well-located sites, their expertise in providing a product that meets market demand and their ability to optimise the potential from each site.
They are very conscious of appropriate phasing of each development and they work well with their professional design teams. They have been very successful in both the commercial and residential sectors.
This past November saw the company’s work again acknowledged on a national scale when it won the House Builder of the Year Award at the Irish Building & Design Awards.
The award ceremony took place at the Clayton Hotel in Dublin in what was a prestigious event which saw the country’s largest construction firms turning out in the capital.
On the night, Cosgrave Property Group reigned supreme in the House Builder of the Year category and Paul himself described the success as “an honour” for the business.
“I’d like to point out that we have a very tight crew here at Cosgrave’s and the application that went in for this award was strong,” he said.
“A good few of our on-site and design team were there on the night and it was great that Michael Cosgrave Jnr was on hand to accept the award on the company’s behalf.”
It may well have been the perfect way to help end a year which celebrated 40 years in business for the company, having held the official celebrations just a couple of months previous during the summer.
Going on form, it’s safe to assume that Cosgrave Property Group will be marking half a century with quite a party in 10 years’ time, as business continues to flourish at 15 Hogan Place, Dublin 2.
Cosgrave
15 Hogan Place,
Dublin 2
D02 DK23
Tel: (01) 611 0400
E-mail: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, April 2020, Vol 6 No 2
