Sunday 4 September 2011

NAMA seeks buyer for ‘exclusive’ Limerick estate

AN UNFINISHED Castletroy housing estate once billed as being among the city’s most exclusive will now take “a number of year” to cplete, according to receivers acting for NAMA.

Of over 200 houses originally planned for Evanwood, Golf Links Road, only 36 have been built and occupied.

Nineteen are partially constructed while 141 have yet to commence. A creche was also part of the original plans. When initially put on the market by developer Ger Clohessy in 2008, a three-bed semi-detached cost €350,000 but the asking price had dropped as low as €200,000 by 2010.

Former Young Munster skipper Mr Clohessy last year strongly criticised Irish Nationwide for appointing receivers to Evanwood, saying it “flew in the face of commercial logic” given the level of market interest and claiming the bank had been supportive of the project right up to the appointment of the receivers.

Receivers Farrell Grant Sparks, now acting for NAMA, have appealed to Limerick County Council to extend planning permission by another five years in order to dispose of the site to a “solvent third party”. “The economic downturn prevented the completion of the 19 houses and made the commencement of the other 141 houses impossible,” the receivers state to Limerick COunty COuncil adding there is no known date for the completion of the estate.

But architect Diarmuid Maguire, for Farrell Grant Sparks, says there are “ongoing discussions with a number of interested parties”.

Appealing to Limerick County Council not to allow planning permission to lapse, Mr Maguire states this would make it more attractive to prospective buyers.

It is in the interests of the local authority, NAMA, the receivers and “most importantly the existing residents on the estate” that that Evanwood is completed.

Limerick Leader

www.buckplanning.ie

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