The Irish Times – Thursday, September 1, 2011
LAURA SLATTERY
PROPERTIES OWNED by developers Paddy Kelly and Seán Dunne dominate a new list of 36 properties and development sites to which State assets agency Nama appointed receivers in July.
The agency has updated its website to include the list of properties against which it has recently taken enforcement actions, including Dunne’s Hume House office block in Ballsbridge in Dublin and the Riverside IV building on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.
Three Dublin public houses owned by Mr Kelly – Grays of Newmarket, the Chancery Inn and the Legal Eagle – are among the assets related to the developer on the list.
Sites or units in Dublin, Cork, Cavan, Kilkenny, Meath, Tipperary and Wicklow feature on the list, as do two developments in the UK. Certain units at residential developments in Youghal, Co Cork, and Foxrock, Stillorgan and Ballymun in Dublin are listed, as are units at industrial estates located in Baldoyle and Sandyford in Dublin, and Blarney and Rockgrove in Cork. The total number of properties that have been subject to enforcement action is now 887, the agency said yesterday.
Nama also indicated that it had received 93,000 individual visits from users to its website since July 28th, when it first published a list of properties to which receivers had been appointed. Some 70 per cent of the users visited the site from Ireland with around 20 per cent from Britain. The remaining 10 per cent of visitors are spread across 148 countries.
“No doubt some visitors are simply curious, but many are very interested in what’s available to purchase and we hope that the site will encourage transactions on the relevant properties,” a spokesman for Nama said.
The agency is encouraging interested parties to contact the insolvency firms listed against each property.
In July, Nama appointed Paul McCann of Grant Thornton as property receiver to the Dunne properties, which also include development sites in North Wall Quay, Sandymount and Rathfarnham, and certain units in the Hollybrook apartments in Foxrock.
In that month, the agency took control of another 16 properties that have debts involving Mr Kelly. Estate agent Savills was appointed as property receiver to 15 of those assets, including the three pubs; offices in Sandyford and Deansgrange; a 32-acre site at Robertshill in Kilkenny; a 61-acre site in Ashford Valley, Co Wicklow; and sites in Trim, Co Meath, and Lusk, Co Dublin.
This was the second phase of enforcement by Nama against Mr Kelly. Most of these assets are believed to involve groups of investors put together by Mr Kelly to avail of tax breaks.
The properties are listed on nama.ie/propertiesenforced.php