The members of the so-called “Maple 10” – the 10 customers of Anglo who were apparently loaned €450m in total to buy shares in Anglo – are experiencing mixed fortunes these days. Paddy McKillen is dealing with an epic defeat in London’s High Court and now faces a €25m legal fees bill though Paddy’s Belfast Office Properties did get the green-light last week to build a major extension to the Ards Shopping Centre, John McCabe is in the wars with NAMA with NAMA freezing his assets in a Dublin High Court case which is set to resume in October 2012 and indeed word on the street is that John has just returned from Bahrain where he had a hairy time trying to get fees back from a company, Western Gulf Advisory. But today we learn that one member of the Maple 10 at least is having some good luck.
Paddy Kearney’s PBN Property has today been given the green-light by the Northern Ireland environment minister Alex Atwood to develop a town centre scheme including a shopping centre in Carryduff, a small town 10 kilometres south of Belfast in countyDown. Paddy is one of the Maple 10. His company PBN is derived from the initials of its principal owners (P)addy Kearney, (B)rian McConville and the former head of Anglo in Northern Ireland, (N)eil Adair.
According to the press release – not available yet online – from the Department for the Environment, the development “involves the demolition of the existing Carryduff Shopping Centre and construction of new mixed use development comprising an overall retail floorspace of 8,825 square metres consisting of 19 units at ground floor level and 150 apartments above the retail element” Carryduff might be generously described as a town that could do with some regeneration.
The planning application for the scheme was submitted in 2007, and although PBN is in NAMA, it is unclear if NAMA will be funding this particular development, which would be expected to create 100+ construction jobs plus retail jobs when the development is completed.
In theory this is a good location in prime suburban south Belfast but Tesco have already got planning for 15,000 sq ft nearby
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15357126
There’s also a big Tesco and a big Sainsbury within a very short distance.