A building in the middle of Galway’s main thoroughfare, which has been vacant for the past 30 years, has been taken over by US-based investors.
The property that previously housed the family-run Taaffes shop, which sold woollen goods until its closure in 1996, was put up for sale in 2024. No price tag was attached to the listing.
New ownership records filed with Tailte Éireann, formerly the Land Registry, have shown Irish company Tafko Limited, controlled by New Jersey-based directors Laura and Michael Higgins, was registered as the new owner of 47 William Street at the beginning of July 2026.
A representative for the company, which has listed New Jersey-based firm Bungalow LLC as its ultimate owner, did not respond to an Irish Times request for comment in advance of publication.
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Laura and Michael Higgins, both in their 60s, are behind several companies with other property interests in Galway city centre.
Shopko Investment Limited, which also lists the pair as directors, has been the owner of Árd Rí House at 9 Abbeygate Street Lower since March 2017. This property is linked to the rear of 47 William Street.
Laura and Michael Higgins are also directors of a company that is the owner of the Bridge Mills building on Dominick Street Lower in Galway.
In total, they control five Irish companies, which at the end of 2025 controlled more than €13.3 million worth of investment property in Ireland, including a property on Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin and Father Mathew Street in Cork.
The new ownership records for 47 William Street do not state who previously owned the property or a price paid for the property by Tafko Limited.
Based on Galway City Council’s planning records, the building has had a number of owners since Taaffes shop closed down in 1996.
In previous applications that proposed renovating the property between 2007 and 2014, Gerry Barrett, a Galway developer who previously owned Ashford Castle and the G Hotel in Galway, was named as the owner.
Most recently, in 2022, a planning application that sought permission to carry out reconstruction works by Radical Properties Unlimited Company said it was the owner.
Radical Properties Unlimited Company is linked to a property investment vehicle called Alanis Capital, which is controlled by Dublin-based developers the McCormack family, who also own the nearby Hardiman hotel.
In the past three decades, plans were put forward to bring the property back into use. Former owner Barrett secured planning permission to convert the property, which sits on a 0.018-acre site, into a three-storey, 1,384sq m retail development, but this permission has expired. In 2007, Barrett said a new Zara store would open in the building in the late 2000s, but this plan never proceeded.
