A company owned by one of Northern Ireland’s highest profile property developers has posted a £143m loss. Belfast Offices Properties blames its disastrous 2013 returns on a write-down in the value of its assets.
Paddy McKillenco-owns the company with the County Tyrone developer Padraig Drayne and, like the majority of the Province’s commercial property firms, it has had to write down the value of its investments as a knock-on effect of the property crash.
The company owns the Ards shopping centre and the Waterfront Plaza office block in Belfast. However, most of the write-down appears to relate to Glasgow’s Forge shopping centre with a note in the accounts stating that the Forge Limited Partnership returned a loss last year of £106m.
Belfast Office properties has £221m of loans from Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland, which are held on a demand basis, and which the directors say they expect to be renewed. They also confirm they are in discussions with other investors and lenders.
Last month McKillen and Ronan teamed up again to re-enter Dublin’s office construction market backed by the multi-billion dollar American investment fund, Colony Capital, and an un-named British company.
The four-way partnership closed the acquisition of a site beside the former Burlington Hotel in Dublin 4 for €40.5m (£32m). Both men had originally intended to bid separately for the site with different backers but joined forces to press ahead with a scheme for a high-spec office block.
South of the border, a €100m (£79m) redevelopment has been announced for a Limerick shopping centre mothballed for almost seven years.
The derelict Parkway complex, on the main Dublin to Limerick road, is to be resurrected as Horizon Mall under proposals submitted to Limerick City and County Council by Northern Ireland-based developer, Suneil Sharma. The project, funded through his company Varsity Developments, is one of the largest post-crisis investments in the area and, it is claimed, will create 1,500 retail posts and 500 construction jobs.
The new Horizon Mall will consist of 312,000sq ft of retail floorspace, 301,000sq ft of food courts and restaurants and almost 37,000sq ft of leisure facilities. There will be parking for 1,575 vehicles and a dedicated shopper’s creche. Because of its “strategic location” Sharma says it is already attracting attention from international retail brands, many of which would otherwise not consider locating on Ireland’s west coast.
“Marks & Spencer has agreed to take 100,000sq ft in the new scheme, their largest store outside Dublin,” explained the developer. “We are also involved in very positive discussions with other major retail brands and will be making further announcements about this in the weeks and months ahead.”
As part of his development strategy, Sharma said he wanted to support an employment training scheme targeted at “maximising local take-up of employment with a particular focus on long-term unemployed”.
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