Kilternan Hotel Development

Pretty much stopped, no one being paid. That tends to do it.

We really need some word for these kinds of sites. There are hundreds of them around now I reckon.

Celtic Tiger trophies might not be a bad term.

The tough thing for many specialist specialist construction companies, is being left out in the cold – revenue wise – on multiple sites, with different main contractors. The only thing that seems to vary, is the degree of honesty with which main contractors deal with those who are owed.

Some main contractors were up front and honest about their cash flow problems. Others were not. Honesty, though it doesn’t hold value as a currency, was still appreciated the specialist construction companies affected.

But aside from that, you cannot point a finger at any main contractor, and say, they were the problem. The problem seems to be that many specialist construction companies are exposed on multiple fronts – even though they contracted to do work for many different main contractors.

This has to be something new in the building industry. It is like a virus or something that has paralysed a whole industry in one go. The source of funding for all main contractors, bar a few, seems to be the same. And there was something deeply ‘toxic’ with that overall funding source, that has poisoned the whole lot simultaneously.

It appears as if funding is too expensive or non-existent for almost all main contractors at the moment.

Brian O’ Hanlon

Hugh O’Regan (original owner of Thomas Read Group) owns this site. Rumour has it that he is broke, so it could stay in the same condition for many years to come. Unfortunate really.

Did this thing ever open for business does anyone know?

Hugh O’Regan controls the Thomas Read Holdings Group. This should not be confused with the Thomas Read Group of pubs which also is in liquidation. Hugh was the founder of that group also but sold it on to Paddy Kelly and his family a number of years ago.

The only real trading company in the TRH group is one that operates the Morrison Hotel on the quays. The other companies were involved in developing a number of properties (including the Kilternan resort and No 8 Stephens Green)

Essentially Irish Nationwide (the main funder of the Kilternan project) were willing to advance the group the necessary finance of around €10mln to complete the Kilternan project (i think it’s more than 90% complete and needed) but withdrew this facility once Anglo moved to appoint a liquidator to one of the other companies in the group.

As of now, 3 companies within the TRH Group are in liquidation (including the companies involved in developing Kilternan and 8 Stephens Green) and the outlook for the other companies including the Morrison Hotel is very uncertain.

8 Stephens Green appears to be destined to become a retail outlet (possibly for Abercrombie and Fitch)

The fate of Kilternan is as of yet unknown. As I said it is 90% complete but one has to wonder if there is any value in completing it at this stage? I would imagine Irish Nationwide will recover only a fraction of the 170 million they lent TRH in the event of its sale.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0807/1224252151825.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2009/1014/1224256604811.html