Another casualty of the recession

Casualties of the boom?

Overrated and over priced. Was only handy for parking before the clamper would be out every minute. Good riddance. New owners will struggle to make a go of it.

1 Like

Surely a Lidl is closing for different reasons. Tactical or whatever.

:person_shrugging: It was in the city centre but in an odd location alright but never heard of one of them closing before

Agreed. But with a population size of Douglas place like this should be able to stay going

A reputed swingers club back in early days too

It’s being taken over by new owners and Lidl in corn market street is closed temporarily while being renovated

1 Like

Refurbishment?

That makes sense …that shopping center has been plagued with problems I think

Curious one here.

I don’t think I’ve seen a petition for the winding up of an ICAV before.
A bit of digging suggests that the ICAV was developing a site on Kevin St bought from TUD (where they outbid Johnny Ronan). The property was to be called Camden Yards. It was one of the last two sites identified as a possible new HQ for E&Y. It won’t be now.
It looks like the site has been shuttered for a while and the financial crisis was triggered by a failure to refinance and a payment demand for 7 figures issued by contractors Bennett.

The ICAV is run by Pat Whelan ( the former rugby international) and his son Shane Whelan. Shane was development director with Johnny Ronan before leaving his firm and outbidding him on this site. Also involved in their company, Westridge, is a gentleman called Mark Redmond. This Mark Redmond previously worked in Anglo and was Seanie Fitz’s right hand man.

He then moved on to D2 Private where he was involved in the notorious asset stripping of Clery’s.

It seems that US investors have been wiped out to the tune of €90m.

It appears that it’s not Pat Whelans first rodeo either.

6 Likes

A bunch of absolute gangsters no doubt.

Mothballed since last June:

€200m has gone into the site between acquisition and construction. €150m loss expected…

The talk is that Hines and Marlet are bidding for it and want to convert it more to residential. Which seems rather bizarre to me given the money ploughed in. Yes there are sunk costs, but there will be a shortfall in new office space by 2027 that is useful so I don’t get why they would switch this completely:

1 Like

I’m not sure if this the same London deal mentioned above. A lot of the great and the good in Limerick took a hit on his deals. Mad how these lads were able to “recover” and front further multimillion euro deals a few years later.

Limerick investors take Pat Whelan to High Court over London deal - Limerick Live

1 Like

Really? Seems mad I would have assumed an oversupply seems to be loads of vacant office blocks around

2 Likes

Not the ESG friendly stuff.

A lot of the bigger developments in Dublin are being taken up now as well or are about to be signed up. Example is College Square which is one of the biggest and Workday are taking the majority of, they pulled the plug on their own development in Grangegorman. Apple, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and some law firms have taken up a load of space. I think the suburbs could be in a bit of bother. Vodafone have their existing HQ in Sandyford but are looking to downsize but move more towards the city centre.

Not a lot of new stuff has started in the last three years.

I don’t know what will happen to the older stuff, will be interesting to see.

1 Like

Whelan is a gangster. That is all.

Ah he was just a little unlucky.

A few times.

1 Like

But he was Limerick Person of the Year in 2008. :man_shrugging:t5:

4 Likes

His crime was he dared to dream.

That was for a strong showing past his physical prime in a bar fight.

1 Like