Dairygold co-op has sold its Trinity Quarter site in Cork city for €17.2m, closing one of the final chapters in its ill-fated move into property development in the early and mid-2000s. The site has been sold to UCC, which plans to construct student accommodation on the site.

The site was originally purchased by an offshoot investment company controlled by Dairygold co-op for approximately €21m, when property prices in Ireland were sharply rising. However, the economic crash followed shortly after and the co-op’s property division ran into trouble. The urban site was eventually bought from the investment subsidiary by another division of Dairygold for just €6m.

The whole transaction is likely to have cost farmer shareholders in Dairygold an estimated €10m between asset write-downs, legal and financial costs. In 2014, Dairygold announced it was winding up Reox, a property investment arm of the co-op that incurred significant write downs. In 2017, Dairygold received €411,000 in a final distribution from this wind-down.