A high-profile hotelier's firm made nothing from a Dublin apartment project after Nama forced sale

A COMPANY OWNED by hotelier Jim McGettigan made no money from the sale of a multimillion-euro apartment complex after Nama forced it to sell the development.

Accounts filed for one of the hotelier’s companies, McGettigan Ltd, show that it made a €7.5 million loss in 2015. This was mainly due to an €18.5 million impairment charge booked by the business.

This was a provision for “non-recoverable receivables”. A receivable is something that is owed to a business, which is normally counted as an asset.

The company was forced to make a provision of €18.5 million, effectively writing the assets off. One of these assets was an €11 million loan provided to another McGettigan company, Foxhall Developments, for the development of an apartment complex.

Jim McGettigan, one of the country’s most prolific developers, is a director of both companies. His McGettigan group is made up of nearly a dozen hotels and 11 pubs.

Although the bulk of these are located in Ireland, the group also has a hotel in Dubai and several pubs internationally, including in New York.

Apartment complex

In 2008 McGettigan Ltd entered into a joint venture with Foxhall to develop the complex on site of the old Shieling Hotel in Dublin, a landmark building that was a popular traditional music spot featuring acts such as the Dubliners.

The development was to consist of three blocks of four-storey flats with a combined capacity of 75 housing units.

McGettigan Ltd ‘forward-sold’ the site to Foxhall for €11 million and was meant to be paid on a phased basis when the apartments were completed and sold.

Foxhall got €22.7 million in funding from AIB to develop the site, however after the recession hit the company’s loans were transferred into Nama as its debts mounted.

Work on the project took years and in 2015 Nama eventually forced Foxhall to sell the partially complete project to a third party, whose identity was not revealed, to repay the development money it borrowed.

Wound up

McGettigan Ltd stated in its accounts that although it counted the €11 million forward sale of the site to Foxhall as an asset, it also realised that it has no realistic chance of getting that money – meaning that McGettigan made no money from the sale of the site.

“The company believes it is prudent to recognise the receivable of €11 million due to the company from Foxhall Developments under the forward sale contract as a fixed asset,” it said.

“The directors have also taken the view that it is both prudent and necessary to fully provide for this receivable that Foxhall Developments has no ability to pay the company and is in the process of being wound up.”

Foxhall is listed to be struck off the companies register as it has not filed up-to-date accounts. McGettigan Hotels hadn’t responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.