IRISH INVESTMENT firm First Equity Group is to develop the world’s first indoor winter sports resort after planners said they were “minded” to approve the €600 million plan on a 360-acre site near Ipswich in the UK.
The Dublin company, established in 1995 by former tax inspector Tom Dowling, is a 70 per cent shareholder in the Onslow Suffolk consortium.
The group has plans to open the SnOasis development in 2011, said to be the first of its kind, before the London Olympics a year later. Other shareholders include British developer Godfrey Spanner.
First Equity entered the project on behalf of its private clients when the consortium acquired land for the project at a cost of about €100 million with the backing of Bank of Ireland.
Little known outside the high net worth investor circle, First Equity had stated last year that the gross value of projects in which it had been involved stood at $3 billion (€1.9 billion).
The €600 million “gross development value” of the scheme includes equity, debt and profit.
First Equity said yesterday that a government inspector recommended approval of the scheme in its entirety subject to conditions.
If final planning approval is granted the scheme will include 100 apartments, 17 bars and restaurants, a sports complex, 350 ski lodges, a four-star hotel and conference centre, and an athletes’ village.
“The secretary of state at the department of communities and local government today announced that she agrees with these conclusions and has approved residential and other elements of the scheme and ‘is minded’ to approve the leisure elements of the scheme, subject to Onslow Suffolk Ltd complying with relevant planning and legal requirements which centre mainly on sustainability and wildlife issues,” it said
