NAMA is this morning reported to have sold a cinema site in Tunbridge Wells inKent for GBP 10m (€11.5m). The buyer is reported to be a joint venture between global private equity firm The Carlyle Group and London-based development company Bellhouse Joseph. The property had been owned by Rydell Properties Limited (a Howard and Joe O’Donovan company). In February 2011 two directors of Savills in the UK, Julian Clarke and Stewart Martin, were appointed as LPA receivers to the property.
The property is the site of the old ABC Cinema (pictured here) on the corner ofMount Pleasant Road andChurch Road. It has planning permission for 9,905sqm of retail space, 7,213 sqm of office space, a 137-bed hotel, and a 122-bay car park. Oddly enough a search of the Savills UK commercial property website this morning didn’t return any result for the property.
The Kent News website quotes from Savills “This was a complex transaction in what is a very high profile site for Tunbridge Wells. The team and NAMA were delighted to conclude the transaction with Carlyle and Bellhouse Joesph.”
Cork-based Rydell Properties is possibly most associated with the Wilton Shopping Centre in Cork, which the Irish Examiner reported earlier this year was “now effectively controlled by NAMA”.
This is not the first venture between USinvestment giant Carlyle and Bellhouse Joseph. In 2006 the two teamed up to buy property in the City of London. The Carlyle Group was part of a consortium bidding to buy Irish state-owned financial institution, the Educational Building Society (EBS) earlier this year before the Irish government decided to cancel the sale and eventually merged EBS into state-controlled Allied Irish Banks.
NAMA had no comment on the reported sale at time of writing.
NAMA Wine Lake 
I wrote some time ago, on this blog, suggesting several “debt for equity” swap scenarios (I can’t find the notes now) . At this point, because of the inactivity and inability of the government to deal with the problem a straight debt forgiveness strategy is IMO the best way to revitalise the economy and deal with the problem quickly.
I believe that the moral hazard argument is overstated. People generally pay their mortgages if they have the ability to do so. There will be more moral hazard in the number of mortgagees who will hand their keys back over the next six months and walk away from the property, if this issue is not addressed. The banks have already made allowance for the mortgage losses in their books, it is time the benefits were passed through to the borrowers for the sake of the economy. Otherwise we will never have a recovery or the prospect of any growth.