Moloughney makes a return to the fray with Finglas housing project

FORMER aviation entrepreneur Pat Moloughney has moved to further expand his plans for a housing development in Finglas in Dublin 11.

His move into housebuilding follows a tough financial period following the recession in which he declared bankruptcy in the UK and was involved in a legal battle with Nama over a €31m debt.

His housebuilding company Greenwich Project Holdings has applied for permission to build 19 mainly three bedroom homes, to add to the more than 50 three bedroom homes for which he was granted permission in February on sites close to the existing Dunsoghly development.

The Ratoath Road development site, which is in two parts at either side of the existing development, was put on the market in June 2016 with a guide price of almost €1.3m.

It is about 6.3km north-west of Dublin city centre.

Greenwich is involved in a number of developments in the area. It is also planning to convert the former Castle Inn on St Margarets Road in nearby Meakstown into a residential development comprising 17 apartments.

Moloughney was previously involved in an aviation company called Skypro Executive Jets with then business partner Philip De Vere Hunt. A company belonging to the pair, BPD Capital, subsequently borrowed more than €30m from AIB in 2010 to develop a shopping centre in Cashel, Co Tipperary.

The bank claimed in court they had not repaid the loan and that it was subject to full recourse. The loan was later taken over by Nama. Moloughney was declared bankrupt in the UK.

On the day of a hearing into the BPD case, De Vere Hunt’s body was discovered. A coroner’s court found that he had ended his own life because the situation had “brought him to the end of his tether”.