The sale of 16-18 Lower Pembroke Street in central Dublin for “about €3m” was reported in the Sunday Business Post and by Jack Fagan in the Irish Times in March 2013. This blogpost just adds some more detail. The buyer of the property, which was originally earmarked for office/residential development, but which is now set to become a new hotel, is a company called Plaza on the Square Limited. The directors of this company are Conor O’Donnell who gives his address as Ively Road in Clapham from where he also runs his consulting company, COD Consulting Limited. The other director is Brian Clingen from Boca Grande in Florida but whose businesses appear anchored in Illinois. 52-year old Brian T Clingen confirms in company filings that he is the manager of a range of Illinois businesses including BP Capital Management LLC, American Access Group LLC, Lonestar Finance and Leasing LLC, MTH Enterprise Holdings LLC, MTH Enterprises LLC, Northwest Partners LLC, Northwest Indiana Properties LLC, Oak Lawn Partners LLC, Service Holdings LLC, Transport and Towing Holdings LLC, Transport Holdings LLC, National Transport LLC, CF3 Holdings LLC, DB Partners LLC and he is a director of KAR Holdings II LLC, KAR Auction Services Inc, Automotive Finance Corporation and AFC Funding Corporation. Forbes.com shows his 2009 remuneration from one company, KAR Auction Services Inc at $2m (€1.6m).
Plaza on the Square Limited has a registered address at 19 Raglan Hall, Clyde Road in Ballsbridge, an apartment that GVA were offering for sale at €400,000. This is a different apartment in the same block.
The €3m purchase price of the run-down block is a far cry from its price tag when last sold for €26m in 2006 when Gerry Deane and Paddy Fitzgerald of the Pembroke Partnership bought it from the Commissioners for Irish Lights.
The new owners are reported to be planning to refurbish the building and convert it into a boutique hotel, which might have up to 120 rooms. Existing planning permission appears to allow a hotel development in place of the originally-planned office/residential project.
Brian Clingen spoke with RTE’s George Lee last September 2012 about investing in Ireland, and he appears to be one of an army of foreign investors seeking out opportunities in Ireland at present.
For your information, this is the Land Registry record for 16-18 Lower Pembroke Road and this is the Company Registration Office record for Plaza on the Square Limited.
NAMA Wine Lake 
This being the case, you’d have to wonder if he’s read yesterday’s article by Matt Philips in ‘The Atlantic’:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/welcome-to-ireland-where-mortgage-payments-are-optional-and-the-banks-are-a-mess/274566/
The hangover is just beginning, with mortgage arrears being high on the list of problems.
Who’d a tunk, eh?
Just read Matt Phillips article. I wonder has anyone done a study of people who were in arrears in the1980’s? I know we were many months in arrears over a ten year period. But over time we caught up and cotinued to overpay the amount agreed with our lender. We got a pleasent surprise when we finally came to clear the mortgage
@NWL, I deduce that you are not a Dub. I think you mean Lower Pembroke Street?
@WSTT, corrected! Was distracted with the proper term for south Dublin 2, seems just too distant for Dublin city centre, Central Business District isn’t a very common term so plumbed for central Dublin, which given the national, international and Dub audience should be meaningful.