Receivers appointed late last year to the half-built landmark mixed-use development on the former DIT campus on Kevin Street in Dublin have appointed CBRE to sell the project, the Sunday Times reports.
Developer Westridge Real Estate, led by chief executive Shane Whelan, paid €145 million for the site, which is close to St Stephen’s Green, on behalf of North American investors in 2019. A further €65 million was spent on excavation and construction on the project, which was estimated to have a gross development value of €475 million.
Alternative lender BentallGreenOak, which was one the funders of the project, appointed Grant Thornton as to the project, known as Camden Yard, in December.
The newspaper article highlights how the developer originally planned to build offices, apartments and retail and restaurant units. However, it says that the buyer will most likely return to the planners to build more apartments on the prime site.
Taxpayers ‘to miss out’ on €9bn cash payments from banks
The Sunday Times also reports that the State is set to miss out on a share of almost €9 billion of expected distributions of surplus cash by Bank of Ireland and AIB to shareholders over the nest three years. That’s because the State sold its remaining shares in Bank of Ireland in late 2022 and is on course to dispose its final stock in AIB in the coming months.
The piece notes that the expected payouts will eclipse the €7.2 billion both banks handed over to investors in the past three years by way of dividends and share buy-backs. Most of AIB’s payments in recent times have gone to the State.
Still, the price that the Government has been able to achieve selling shares in recent times in AIB has been boosted by market optimism about the level of surplus cash the bank will return to investors.
Bank of Ireland to double CEO stock awards again in 2026
The Business Post reports on how Bank of Ireland revealed in its annual report, published last week, how it plans to double the fixed share awards plan for chief executive Myles O’Grady again in 2026, to 100 per cent of this base salary, which would bring his remuneration to about €2 million.
O’Grady benefited last year from the introduction of a fixed share award plan, set at 25 per cent of salary, which will increase to 50 per cent this year. The plan gets around how Bank of Ireland remains subject to an effective government ban on bonuses above €20,000 for staff of banks that were bailed out during the financial crisis. That is because there are not performance targets attached to the awards.
Chief executives of rivals lenders AIB and PTSB continue to be subject to remuneration caps of €500,000, as taxpayers continue to own shares in both.
Half of 69,000 homes started in 2025 ‘will never be built’
The Business Post also carries a story citing leading building industry sources as saying that as much as half of the 69,000 homes the Government says that construction started on last year will never be built.
They said up to 50 per cent of the starts are so-called paper commencements, which means that paperwork was filled out to start a project but that work on these sites have been limited. It reflects how developers rushed to meet deadlines in order to be in a position to aim for development levy waivers and a water rebate designed by the government to boost supply.
The problem now is that many of the projects will not proceed as developers know they will struggle to meet an end-2026 construction deadline to secure the waivers, developer Michael O’Flynn is quoted by the newspaper as saying. He has called for the deadline to be extended beyond 2026. Cairn Homes chief executive Michael Stanley also said that not all the housing starts last year are “true” commencements.
Galway planner urged Xerotech plant refusal before fire
A Galway County Council planner had urged that planning for a Xerotech electrical battery plant beside a school in Claregalway be turned down in 2021 – before it was approved by councillors, the Sunday Independent reports.
Xerotech ended up succumbing to liquidation last month, weeks after a fire broke out the site, which took three days to bring under control and led to the evacuation of several businesses and two schools in the area.
Xerotech, which was founded 10 years ago by then-student Barry Flannery, and built up a workforce of about 130 people before it went into liquidation. The group manufactures batteries for large industrial electrical vehicles and had about 40 customers on its books at the time.
Xerotech had raised €44 million from Irish sources, mostly from family offices linked to some well-known business names names, including Dónal Daly, who sold Avoca Capital to KKR in 2014, and City Bin founder Gene Browne.
