Since its inception in 2000, County Cork headquartered Mackee Construction has built up an unrivalled reputation for successfully delivering a diverse range of industry-leading residential and commercial projects. Building Ireland touched base with director and co-founder JP Keane to discover that the standard-setting Mackee Construction team is as busy as ever.
Founded in West Cork at the turn of the millennium by Bantry native JP Keane and Con McNamara from Bandon, Mackee Construction has established an enviable reputation island-wide as the residential and commercial contractor of choice,
By consistently delivering high-quality projects across a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, education, leisure and residential new builds, extensions and refurbishments, Mackee have proven that they possess the expertise and experience to excel on every job large or small – from an attic conversion to a multi-bed nursing home or multi-unit housing development. This explains why there exists such keen demand for their services right now:
“We’re as busy as ever and are only taking on as much work as we can handle,” confirms joint-proprietor JP Keane, adding that there is scope to grow the company even further but for the scarcity of skilled personnel that is holding back the construction industry in general at present.
“The biggest challenge is sourcing labour. At the moment we employ 25 people directly between the office and site, with everything else thereafter subcontracted out. If we could find the right calibre of people, there are opportunities there to increase our size, but without the right people that simply isn’t viable. The most important thing in construction is to make sure everything is done right. To achieve that, you need the right people.”
Mackee have completed many largescale projects down through the years and have worked island-wide with the Remcoll Group on multiple projects. They were main contractors on the expansive two-storey Carnew Primary Care Centre in County Wicklow, which opened its doors in 2016, and last year finished work on the adjacent 100-bed nursing home on Carnew’s Gorey Road.
Demonstrating their inherent versatility, Mackee Construction – who are on the Cork County Council tender list for the West Cork region – also delivered a wonderful mixed-used development in Baltinglass comprising the 18,600 sq ft new Baltinglass Primary Care Centre and the redevelopment of an old convent building into 16 apartments as well as an additional 56 social houses on site.
Elsewhere, in another recently-completed project in Tralee, County Kerry, 18 apartments were fully converted on behalf of the Peter McVerry Trust.
Regarding current activities, JP reveals: “We’re working on a development of our own in Bandon, in conjunction with our sister company, GGA Developments. This one comprises seven high-end new homes directly across the road from the national school in Laragh, where we set back the road frontage to give the school additional parking space. Due to the eircode, home buyers here are guaranteed first option on having their kids educated at this very prestigious school.”
Each developed on a generous half-acre site, these striking two-storey, four-bedroom private homes will be the very epitome of modern living. The development will be completed by the end of 2023, with the first residents expected to move in during the summer.
“We’re also doing another 52-unit housing scheme in Bantry for Remcoll Group, who are hoping to secure more land in Bantry. All going well, we hope to continue our working relationship with them well into the future.
“We’ve also started work on their Sister of Mercy Convent site in Skibbereen, where a fire destroyed the church a few years back. That building is going to be restored, with seven new apartments going in as well as an additional 48 apartments, an underground carpark and seven terraced houses on the lower end of the site. The old school building will be converted into working hubs. We’ve begun enabling works there already and will go into full construction mode in March.”
As well as the various aforementioned projects in Cork, Mackee are also currently looking at taking on another housing development in Tipperary for Remcoll. “We’re also involved in the government initiative Project Phoenix, again with Remcoll, who secure old derelict buildings and transform them into accommodation, predominantly for social and affordable housing, which is very important in replacing and upgrading the existing housing stock,” JP notes.
Very much the archetypal hands-on directors, JP and Con divide their time equally between site and office. “We’re very lucky to have a great team including excellent site foremen, but ultimately the buck stops with us so we make regular site visits to oversee all the work and make sure we are always reaching the high standards of workmanship we’ve built our reputation on.”
Going forward, JP believes that, with a healthy order book ahead of them, Mackee are in a good place, although he adds that the soaring price of building materials is a threat to the viability of the construction industry as a whole:
“Things are busy and if we can stay on top of the labour situation, then 2023 should be another good year,” the personable Cork contractor concludes. “Material prices across the board – concrete, wood, steel – have taken a huge hike and we need to start asking some suppliers to justify why they keep putting their prices up. Increasing prices because a competitor did so isn’t a good enough reason.
“While prices are starting to stabilise, they are still high and eventually the extra cost ends up with the end user or whoever signs the cheque, be that a private home owner or the government. At a time when we desperately need new houses in Ireland, the last thing we want is for the cost of raw materials to become a major stumbling block.”
Mackee Construction Ltd.,
Unit 2,
Laragh Industrial Estate,
Bandon,
County Cork.
Tel: 023 8843282
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, May 2023, Vol 9 No 5
