Jerry O'Reilly steps down as director of Belltrap

DEVELOPER JERRY O’Reilly has resigned from Belltrap, a company associated with himself and fellow property player Bernard McNamara and which leases a number of offices to State bodies.

Ulster Bank appointed Declan McDonald of Pricewaterhousecoopers as receiver to Belltrap Ltd late last year on foot of a debt secured against a number of properties.

Documents filed with the Companies’ Registration Office (CRO) show that Mr O’Reilly has resigned as director of the firm. It is common for directors to resign after banks have appointed receivers to companies.

Belltrap is ultimately owned by Mr O’Reilly and Mr McNamara. Ulster Bank has security over a number of office properties on the southside of Dublin, including a block on Charlemont Street and on Bishop’s Square, which it leases to the Office of Public Works. The Revenue Commissioners, and Departments of Justice and Social Protection are also tenants of Belltrap. At one point, the company was reported to be earning €4 million a year in rent from the State.

State property loans agency Nama placed Mr McNamara’s main building business, Michael McNamara Co, in receivership last November after its business plan failed to be accepted by the agency.

Mr McNamara had already stepped down from any executive role with the company as he did not want the business to become entangled with the problems associated with his own personal property investments, which include Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel and the old glass bottle site in Ringsend in the city’s docklands.

Belltrap was not part of the Nama receivership. Its creditors are listed as Ulster Bank and Irish Intercontinental Bank, neither of which is involved in the Nama process.

Two other developers, James Colgan and Eamon Cox, petitioned the High Court earlier this year to wind up Mr O’Reilly’s main business, Jeremiah O’Reilly and Associates, which, they claimed, owed them €248,862. The debt arose from a property deal they and the company did in Croatia in 2005. It is understood that dispute was subsequently settled and the petition to wind up the company never went further than an initial hearing.