Ballymore's fast-expanding business interests extend from Ireland, through the UK and into central Europe. It is also actively looking at development opportunities in the Far East.
The company has invested more than €100 million in central Europe over the past decade, mainly in commercial properties with redevelopment potential and well located development sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
Its interests are looked after by full-time technical and management personnel based in offices in Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.
The economist Dr Peter Bacon, as executive director, has responsibility for the management and development of the company's central European business. Now that the Bratislava project has moved into the development phase, the company is expected to increasingly focus its attention on the centre of Prague where it has assembled a key site on Wenceslas Square. The plan is to demolish most of the buildings and redevelop the site to provide about 60,000sq m (645,850sq ft) of retail, office and apartments. Close by in the city centre, the company has also acquired a former health clinic which is to be converted into a top-of-the-range apart-hotel to be run by an international hotel group.
The company is building a new village at Statenice, between Prague and the airport, and has acquired 380 acres at Lichoceves which has been earmarked for another village centre and 5,000 homes.
In Budapest, Ballymore is gearing up to develop a mixed-use scheme on an equally large scale to Bratislava. A large site close to Budapest's main railway station, Nyugati, and the parliament building, has been identified for a large shopping centre, office complex, leisure facilities and housing. The company is even busier in the UK where it has been getting top prices for apartments in Europe's two tallest residential towers at Millharbour, just east of Canary Wharf.
Ballymore is the largest landowner in the London docklands with more than 130 acres. The group managing director, Sean Mulryan, was involved with the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, in his campaign to attract the Olympics to London.
