Property group may be placed in receivership

BANK OF Scotland is considering appointing a receiver to Shelbourne Development Group, the Garrett Kelleher-controlled property group behind the stalled Chicago Spire scheme.

A number of sources yesterday confirmed that the bank was preparing to appoint a receiver to Shelbourne Developments, which is said to owe it about €200 million.

It is understood that there are talks going on between the developer and the bank, which has been considering appointing a receiver for the last week.

Accountancy firm Grant Thornton is likely to be appointed to the company, should the bank go ahead and place it in receivership.

Developer Garrett Kelleher controls Shelbourne, which has a range of properties in Ireland, Britain, Europe and the US.

In Dublin, it owns the high- profile 75 St Stephen’s Green building, which is home to law firm Maples and Calder and stockbrokers Dolmen Securities, among others.

Its other properties in the capital include Belgard Square, Moore Street Plaza, Sackville House, the old Telecom Éireann building on O’Connell Street, and a development site in Ranelagh, a suburb on the city’s southside.

Mr Kelleher’s other interests include League of Ireland football team, St Patrick’s Athletic.

The company is best known for the Chicago Spire, a proposed 150-storey residential tower on the banks of Lake Michigan that was going to house more than 2,000 people in 1,200 luxury apartments. The customised homes were to sell at prices ranging from $750,000 to $40 million for a two-floor penthouse.

Shelbourne bought the 2.2-acre site for $65 million in 2006. As recently as 2008, Mr Kelleher said that he was going to put up 30 per cent of the $2.1 billion development cost and Anglo Irish Bank – now dubbed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – was to provide the balance.

The company held a celebrity-studded launch for the project in Dublin in 2008, where the guests included Irish screen actor, Liam Neeson and his late wife, Natasha Richardson.

Some preparatory work was completed at the site, but the development has yet to get fully off the ground. Late last year, a local court appointed a receiver to the site.

Mr Kelleher was calculated to be worth more than €500 million at the height of the property boom that collapsed towards the end of the last decade. He kept a lower profile than some other developers. Originally from Dublin, he dropped out of Trinity College in the 80s and went to Chicago, where he worked in construction.

While there, he started a painting and decorating company, which provided the platform for his first property ventures, buying run-down buildings, doing them up and selling them on.

He returned to Dublin in the 90s and began building his Irish property portfolio with the support of loans from Anglo Irish Bank.