Solicitor and developer Noel Smyth wants the High Court to block any future sale of an unused car park near Dublin Airport and to force its owner, Gerry Gannon, to reopen it as part of a prior agreement, according to High Court filings.
Mr Smyth is also looking to secure a court order to force Nama to release the security it holds over the car park lands, allowing the deal to be completed.
The High Court case is the latest development on the future of the former QuickPark car park, which is located on the Swords Road near the airport.
The 16.9 hectare plot has room for 6,122 cars and planning permission for a new entrance building with office space for staff. It is owned by Mr Gannon and was previously operated as QuickPark by John O’Sullivan through a company called ParkFly.
The car park closed during the Covid-19 pandemic in September 2020 and, in 2022, Mr Gannon put it on the market with a guide price of €70 million.
In late 2022 he struck a deal to sell the car park site to the DAA, which runs Dublin Airport. However, the State’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), blocked that deal over fears it would stifle competition for car parking around the airport.
Several other bidders were understood to have been interested in buying the site, including Pat Crean of the Marlet Property Group, an Irish investment company called Innovest, a consortium led by Joe O’Leary of BMOL Financial, and an Irish parking company called Euro Car Parks.
At the time, there were rumours that Mr Smyth had been in some way linked to a possible deal for the site, though they were never confirmed.
Mr Smyth now claims in his legal papers that he had an agreement with Mr Gannon to reopen the car park to be operated by a “partnership”. The legal filings do not state whether that partnership was limited to Mr Gannon and him, or whether there are other people involved.
As part of his legal action, he wants the court to order “specific performance of the agreement to include the consummation of the transactions contemplated therein”.
He wants the court to issue an order “compelling [Mr Gannon] to co-operate and/or exercise best endeavours to arrange for the reopening of the car park by the partnership”, and to carry out “necessary works on the car park”.
If necessary, he states in the documents, he wants “a declaration that the car park is partnership property and that it is being held on trust by the defendant for the partnership”.
He also wants an order to compel Mr Gannon to “put forward a proposal to Nama for the release of the security held by Nama over the car park”.
In the meantime he wants to restrain Mr Gannon from “marketing and/or selling and/or otherwise alienating any interest in the car park without the consent of the plaintiff insofar as such actions or sale would be inconsistent with the agreement”.
The Irish Times approached Mr Gannon and Mr Smyth for comment, but neither replied before publication. A spokesman for Nama was also contacted but the agency declined to comment.
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