NAMA sell €15m site for a million

DE-ZONED TRALEE SITE WAS ONCE EARMARKED FOR LARGE ESTATE

A SITE on the outskirts of Tralee, once one of the most valuable pieces of land in the area, has been sold by NAMA for less than a tenth of its pre crash value.

Recently international investment group Blackstone completed the purchase of the 64 acre site located at Skanhanagh just off the main Tralee to Castlemaine Road in a deal worth a reported €1 million.

The purchase price is a massive markdown on the site’s boom time values.

Previously owned by former Tanaiste and Labour Leader Dick Spring along with his brother Donal Spring and another unnamed investor the site had been sold to Cork development company O’Flynn Construction for €15 million in 2007.

O’Flynn construction had planned to build a 98 house estate on the land but this was refused permission by Kerry County Council and An Bord Pleanala last year over concerns that the land was prone to flooding and potential traffic issues.

Subsequently the land was de-zoned by Kerry County Council as part of an overhaul of Kerry’s zoning policy.

It is this de-zoning that has been cited as the primary reason for the massive reduction in the valuation of the site.

NAMA had acquired control of the extensive site as part of its takeover of around €1.8 billion in debts linked to companies controlled by Michael O’Flynn of O’Flynn Construction.

The sale of the Tralee site was concluded as part of the sale of these debts to Blackstone for a reported €1.1 billion.

It is understood that borrowings associated with the site had reached around €20 million. The site was subject of controversy as prior to the council’s decision to refuse permission for the O’Flynn development on the basis of the flood risk it had previously deemed the site suitable for housing.