News
Vulture fund to auction Tuam development
Tuam’s attractiveness as a location for property investors will be put under the spotlight next week when a US vulture fund auctions off a large apartment and retail development in the town.
The Lár na Cathrach development at Abbey Trinity will be sold in an Allsop Private internet-only auction next Tuesday, and is going to the market with a reserve price range of €1.2m to €1.3m.
Risali Ltd – an Irish arm of the New York private equity firm Apollo Global Management – purchased the loans of DHB Holdings Ltd in December 2012 from Bank of Scotland (Ireland), and appointed receivers to the property in May 2015.
The fund is now offloading the portfolio at Chapel Lane and Egan Lane.
The portfolio was purchased by the vulture fund at a knock-down price which has not been disclosed – DHB Holdings purchased the property from its subsidiary DH Burke & Son Ltd in January 2003 for just under €1.4 million.
While the sale price for the Lár na Cathrach loans is unknown, it was part of the ‘Project Lane’ loan book of more than 500 properties (owned by a variety of investors/developers), which sold at a 90% discount to Risali Ltd.
The building contains 62 parking spaces in the basement, a total of 13 ground floor retail units (where Lumberjacks Pizza is currently an anchor tenant); part of the first floor commercial space used as a restaurant, and 14 duplex two-bed apartments and six single-storey two-bed apartments on the second and third floors.
The vacant commercial element of the building is finished to shell and core only.
Two of the retail units and the first floor restaurants are leased on short-term tenancies with a cumulative rent of €41,600 per annum, while 19 of the apartments are occupied – including eleven corporate lets to Valeo Vision Systems. The gross residential income is €117,900 per annum.
Bidding in the online auction will commence next Tuesday at 8am, and is scheduled to finish shortly after 9.30am.
Although the price paid by the vulture fund for this particular DHB Holdings portfolio – held against mortgages and securities from Bank of Scotland (Ireland) – is confidential, documents filed with the Companies Registration Office by receivers Eamonn Richardson and Kieran Wallace of KPMG showed an estimated value in 2012 of €5.2 million.
As well as Lár na Cathrach, that DHB portfolio included property at Mellows House and Chapel Lane in Tuam; 15 acres in Milltown; land and premises at Baylough in Athlone; industrial units near Dublin Airport and a three-storey office building in Smithfield, Dublin.
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) moved on the empire owned by Kevin Burke from Tuam and Marie Burke from Dublin in 2012 – at the time, it was one of the biggest property groups in the West of Ireland, but had debts of more than €80 million.
The property empire spanned industrial, hotel, commercial, residential and shopping centre interests in Ireland, the UK, Poland, Sweden and Portugal.
DHB Holdings also owns DHB Construction, DH Burke Sweden AB and D.H. Burke Portugal, as well as controlling shares in Grupo Eko Plus, Limeryk Investments and Amigo Investments in Poland.
DH Burke and Son owns, or has controlling shares, in Bontex Ltd, Fortress Properties Ltd and DH Burke (UK) Ltd.
The empire was founded by the late Progressive Democrat councillor Joe Burke, who was best known as the face of DH Burke Supermarkets, which he sold a number of years before he passed away in 2001.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
