JUST TWO years ago, Niall McFadden’s Boundary Capital took a 28 per cent stake in department store Arnotts for €40 million, cementing his role as a central figure behind one of the city’s biggest property developments.

Part of the prize was the Northern Quarter, a €700 million plan to put Arnotts at the centre of a revamped retail development west of O’Connell Street.

With McFadden’s guidance, the company had already bought a large chunk of the property in the area, and had brought in a partner to oversee the project.

But even as he was taking his 28 per cent stake, economists were warning of the consequences of the credit squeeze that had hit the world’s banks. Those consequences hit home yesterday when the High Court granted National Irish Bank a judgment for €8.615 million against Redquartz Boundary (RQB), controlled by McFadden, developer Paddy Kelly and former Anglo Irish Bank executive Paul Pardy. The court adjourned until October a motion for a judgment against McFadden himself for €8.5 million, which the bank is seeking on foot of a personal guarantee.

RQB has high-profile assets, not least the Marriott Hotel on the PGA-owned Sawgrass golf course in Florida, bought for €165 million in early 2006.

A product of Gonzaga, UCD and a Morgan Stanley graduate programme, McFadden began his career with the Goodman meat processing empire, Tedcastle’s fuels and then Hibernian Venture Capital. He helped mastermind the $376 million management buyout of Riverdeep, then advised Arnotts chairman Richard Nesbitt on taking the retailer private.

He bought property services group Irish Estates from Irish Life Permanent in 2005 and packaged it with a similar business, Vector, which he then floated on the stock market flotation as Veris.

Boundary Capital, the investment vehicle controlled by him, Declan Carroll and Martin Cole followed in 2007. He is also a shareholder in building services group, Siteserv. Boundary owes Anglo Irish Bank €38 million. It is unlikely its assets match that, but McFadden says that its businesses are capable of making a profit.