NAMA IS set to get the proceeds of the sale of a prime site on the edge of Belfast city centre that was once earmarked for Northern Ireland’s tallest building.
The sale of the site on Great Victoria Street – placed on the market on the instructions of Tom Keenan who is acting as fixed charge receiver – marks the end of a multimillion-pound dream for one failed local property developer.
Mervyn McAlister, who was declared bankrupt last year, had planned to build the £90 million (€108 million) Aurora development, which was to comprise a 37-storey tower containing nearly 300 apartments along with 650sq m (7,000sq ft) of commercial space.
But following the property crash, instead of being the site of Mr McAlister’s skyscraper, the area has been home to little more than a temporary car park.
At the height of the short-lived property boom in the North, the Great Victoria Street location was valued at about £7 million (€8.4 million).
No details have been disclosed about how much the site, which is zoned as “white land” by Belfast City Council, changed hands for this week.
It is understood that a Co Tyrone fuel importing business, the Lissan Coal Company, had applied, in advance of the sale, for planning permission to develop a 24-hour filing station on the 0.27 acre site.
The latest Nama-authorised property sale in Northern Ireland comes as the North’s Minister for Finance warned that the ongoing work of the agency will have a “significant impact for some time to come”.
Sammy Wilson said the North’s “continued economic prosperity” was in part dependent on Nama “being effective in helping to restore the stability of the banking system”.
Addressing students at the Dublin Institute of Technology’s School of Retail Estate and Construction Economics yesterday, the Minister said individuals and businesses, North and South, had suffered what he described as unimaginable losses.
“The establishment of Nama by the Irish Government was a necessary step to restore liquidity and confidence back into the Irish financial system.
“As Northern Ireland’s banking system is closely linked with the Republic’s, with two of our four main local banks being Irish-owned, this was a welcome step,” the Minister said.
He said the North’s Executive would continue to “monitor” the work of the agency which has acquired loans in Northern Ireland with a nominal value of £3.35 billion (€4 billion).
