WITH NAMA finally ready to take responsibility for the banks’ big toxic assets – the former “jewels” of various property empires – it’s interesting to note that the top property deal maker in the State’s bad bank has finally decided to devote all his time to the serious problems ahead.

John Mulcahy (below), who headed up Jones Lang LaSalle for many years, had since last year been on secondment to Nama, though he continued to act as chairman of the commercial agency. However, he has now officially severed his connection with Jones Lang LaSalle after 40 years to work full-time on the Nama brief.

Mulcahy was a major player in the Dublin property market and would have put together some of the stratospheric deals of the boom, including the €412 million Glass Bottle site sale which he negotiated for Paul Coulson.

The site has since been revalued at €60 million and will now have to be offloaded somehow.

Mulcahy also handled the sale and letting of virtually every building in the IFSC where he worked closely with Mark Kavanagh and British Land.

Having worked so closely with most of the big players that Nama is taking down, it remains to be seen if he can find a credible solution to the massive oversupply and the collapse in property values.

Some imaginative deals will surely have to be done in the coming months and years as Mulcahy sifts through the debris.

We wish him well for the road ahead.