Treasury Holdings firm wins Louth land deal case

DROCARNE LTD, a subsidiary company of Treasury Holdings, has secured a High Court order compelling the owner of 125 acres in Co Louth to adhere to a December 2000 agreement to make the lands available to Drocarne for a major development.

Drocarne is proposing a "Best of Ireland" €125 million "specialist retail" development as well as residential development, on the lands near Tullyallen in the Boyne valley.

When the agreement was signed by Drocarne and Seamus Murphy Properties and Developments Ltd (SMP) in late 2000, the lands were zoned agricultural. They were rezoned by Louth County Council in July 2004, thus greatly increasing their development value.

In its action against SMP, of Hampton Place, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, Drocarne Ltd, of Barrow Street, Grand Canal Docks, Dublin, claims the sides entered into a Master Development Agreement (MDA) on December 21st, 2000, for the development of lands at Tullyallen and that SMP was not entitled to terminate the agreement.

SMP, which bought the Tullyallen lands in 2004 for €16 million, argued that Drocarne had not complied with material terms of the MDA and, for this and other reasons, the MDA was at an end.

In her reserved judgment yesterday, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan ruled in favour of Drocarne and found the MDA of December 2000 remained in force between the two sides, except in relation to two plots of lands which both sides had agreed could be released from the agreement, subject to payment of €50,000 by SMP to Drocarne for the disposal of each plot.