This article is from page 12 of the 2009-12-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
EMBATTLED Clare property devel- oper Bernard McNamara is to appeal a High Court judgment forcing him to pay €63 million back to a group which loaned him the money to de- velop the controversial former Irish Glass Bottling Site in Dublin.
The court ruled on Friday that the Lisdoonvarna developer must im- mediately pay the investors the €63 million used to purchase the site, with a stay being put on the decision until January so that an affidavit can be prepared in relation to what was described as McNamara’s deteriorat- ing financial circumstances.
The ruling was made following a guarantee made by McNamara in 2007, in relation to a loan issued to the developer through the investors Jersey registered company, Ringsend Property Ltd.
A group led by McNamara purchased the property for a massive €412 mil- lion but the estimated value of the site has plummeted to an estimated €60 million in the last two years.
OW slommekolel umm Dicomeca:NelkoeMm ds Come Deh (oice tors’ summary judgment of €98 million against Donatex Limited, a company owned by Mr McNamara, in relation to the same deal.
Ringsend Property Ltd is seeking the repayment of its loan, because it claims a key clause of the loan agree- ment had been breached.
The clause stated that if the devel- opment company, Becbay Limited,
hadn’t applied for the necessary cer- tificates from the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) or hadn’t been granted planning permis- sion by Dublin City Council within 30 months, then the loans should be repaid.
The Dublin Glass Bottling Site has become the symbol of the property bubble of the last decade. The site, sections of which are contaminated with toxic waste, was described be- fore the sale as “the opportunity of participating with one of the most prolific and successful developers in the country in the development of the
largest and most high-profile proper- ty to become available in Dublin 4 for decades”’.
McNamara and Donatex put for- ward four defences, including that Ringsend Property had not complied with other provisions of the loan agreement, that the contract had been made invalid because the DDDA was not able to issue the certificates need- ed for the fast tracking of planning permission, and that the loan agree- ment was to last until 2014.