Ardstone Capital to buy six Nama sites for €50m

Ardstone Capital is believed to have been chosen as preferred bidder by Nama for development assets connected with David Daly’s Albany Group.

Some 128 acres at six sites in commuter towns close to Dublin were placed on the market in February at €44.75 million. It is understood that Ardstone has agreed to pay close to €50 million for the sites.

Ardstone is an independently owned property manager. Its Irish operation is led by Donal Mulcahy, a former executive with Friends First Life Assurance. In March, it announced the first closing of Ardstone Residential Partners, a fund targeting residential development in Ireland. The fund raised €110 million and completed its first two deals.

Its mandate is to generate a 15 per cent “triple net annual return” for investors and its backers include the Irish Strategic Investment Fund.

The sale, handled by Savills, includes a 38.5-acre site in Leixlip, Co Kildare, which was guiding €23 million. It previously had full planning permission for 451 residential units but this has since lapsed.

Lands in Naas were guiding €7.5 million, extend to 15.8 acres and are zoned residential. The 50.8 acres for sale in Newbridge were quoting €6 million – a drop of 90 per cent on their sale value from the pre-crash era. About 26 acres are zoned residential.

Three sites in Swords were also included. One had a guide of €5.5 million and is nearly 12 acres. It has permission for 153 houses and 24 apartments, while the other, at €1.25 million and 2.5 acres, had permission for 62 homes until this expired last month.

The other 8.05 acre site, at €1.5 million, is adjacent to Airside Business Park in Swords.

Loan book

Separately, Nama is reported to have selected four US private equity funds for the second round of bids for Project Abbey, a loan book with a face value of €750 million connected to Pat Doherty’s

Harcourt Developments

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According to CoStar News, Nama, advised by KPMG, is seeking to attract bids in the region of €300 million for the loan portfolio from four selected private equity groups – Starwood Capital, Davidson Kempner, Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital.

However, The Irish Times understands Davidson Kempner has partnered Deutsche Bank on its bid. Second round offers are due in mid-May. The Harcourt loans are believed to be linked to five shopping centres across Ireland, two hotels, a development in Antigua, and a site in Los Angeles.

Nama declined to comment on both sales yesterday.