Who's who
Joe O’Reilly
Joe O’Reilly’s best-known investment is the Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin, the largest shopping centre in the State.
He owns the Carlton Cinema site in Dublin city centre, which takes in most of a block on the upper end of O’Connell Street and fronts on to Henry Street, Moore Street, O’Rahilly Parade and Parnell Street. He was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála in 2010 for the redevelopment of the 800,000sq ft site.
He was one of the top borrowers moved in the first wave of transfers to Nama more than two years ago.
Séamus Ross
Séamus Ross is the principal behind Menolly Homes, which became one of the largest housebuilders in the State after it was established more than 30 years ago.
The company had an estimated turnover of €250 million in 2006. Menolly has been involved in a lengthy dispute with construction materials’ providers over the use of pyrite in some of its properties.
Mr Ross has interests in hotels such as Dunboyne Castle in Co Meath and the Dylan hotel in Dublin 4, which made a combined loss of €1.85 million in the year to June 2010.
Gerry Conlan
Gerry Conlan is best known for his sale of a 400-acre tract of land known as Millennium Business Park, which he co-owned, next to the M7 motorway in Naas, Co Kildare, for €320 million in 2006.
Mr Conlan established the Mount Carmel Medical Group, which owns a maternity hospital in Rathfarnham, south Dublin; Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny; and St Joseph’s Hospital in Sligo.
John McCabe
John and Mary McCabe founded McCabe Builders in 1972 and it went on to become one of the largest in Leinster. The company worked on a number of major developments, including the heritage centre in the Phoenix Park, the €12.5 million Ardmore Hotel in Dublin and the Marriott Hotel in Ashbourne, Co Meath.
Mr McCabe came on board as a director of the Chartbusters DVD rental chain in 2010, taking a majority share in the company in return for fresh investment. The firm has since been wound up with the loss of 87 jobs.
Gerry Gannon
Gerry Gannon was involved in development projects in north Co Dublin and is a former part-owner of the K Club golf resort in Kildare.
He bought the 200-acre Belcamp College site in Dublin in 2004 for €105 million. He was also behind the Robswall project in Malahide and Capital North in Dublin 13.
Losses at his company, Gannon Homes, increased by 26 per cent to €63.4 million before tax in 2009, after writing down the value of stock and investments by €55.9 million.
Mr Gannon was one of the top borrowers moved in the first wave of transfers to Nama.
Gerry Maguire
Gerry Maguire is the property developer behind the Laurence Town Centre in Drogheda and Carroll village in Dundalk, Co Louth.
Mr Maguire’s main development company, Parolen, was a substantial borrower with Anglo Irish Bank for its various property development and investment projects. The company had net liabilities of €61.8 million at March 31st, 2011, up from €50.7 million a year earlier. Mr Maguire is also listed as a director of Parolen Group (Holdings), Dundalk Multiplex Cinemas, and Tripes Fashion Ltd, among others.
Patrick Kearney
Patrick Kearney, whose investment in the Anglo deal was a personal transaction, became one of the largest property developers in Northern Ireland through a number of companies.
Based in Gibraltar, Mr Kearney is involved in Belfast-based PBN Properties with partners. The company owns Carryduff Shopping Centre in Belfast and The Shore, a 110-acre development site in Carrickfergus. It was established by Mr Kearney with Neil Adair, a former regional director of Anglo Irish Bank in Belfast, and businessman Brian McConville.
Seán Reilly
Meath-based housebuilder and property developer Seán Reilly has been behind projects such as the Cisco Building in East Point Business Park and the Watermarque building in Dublin.
His companies, Alcove Developments and McGarrell Reilly Homes, have built houses in Co Meath, Co Louth and in the greater Dublin area.
Alcove Properties was last year given the go-ahead for the regeneration of Dublin City Council’s Charlemont Street flat complex near Ranelagh.
Brian O’Farrell
An auctioneer and developer based in north Dublin, Brian O’Farrell is the owner of Coolock’s Northside Shopping Centre and founder of auctioneering firm O’Farrell Cleere, based in Malahide. O’Farrell Cleere previously listed the home of former Anglo Irish Bank chief David Drumm on the exclusive Abington estate in Malahide among the properties it was attempting to sell.
Properties at Devlin Banks in Naul, built by a firm co-owned by Mr O’Farrell, were involved in a Nama negative-equity protection scheme in March. The properties had fallen in value by up to 80 per cent.
Paddy McKillen
Having moved to Dublin to work in the family business, DC Exhausts, the Belfast-born entrepreneur became known for developing the Jervis Street Shopping Centre.
Mr McKillen was involved in the Temple Bar Hotel, the Treasury Building and the Pepper Canister office block in Dublin. He was successful in a legal challenge to the proposed acquisition by Nama of about €1.4 billion in loans of his companies. The agency sold a further €800 million of loans connected to the Maybourne Hotel group in London, of which Mr McKillen was a shareholder.