INVESTORS IN a 400-bedroom apartment/hotel complex in west Dublin, which is in liquidation, broke into the premises over the weekend, changed the locks and appointed themselves its new “managers”.
Séamus Coyle and his business partner Adrian Cooney say they have the backing of all 140 investors in the Citywest Golf Hotel next to the Citywest Hotel, Saggart, for their action.
It is the same hotel where Dubliner Thomas Bradshaw last month staged a sit-in in an apartment his mother had invested in. He has since vacated the apartment.
Mr Coyle and Mr Cooney erected new frontage on the hotel on Saturday saying “Under new management”, and put up placards saying “Citywest dispute. We will not be denied access to our property.”
They have also appointed 24-hour security to the building.
“We have been driven to breaking in through sheer frustration at being denied access to our property by Bank Of Scotland, Ireland,” said Mr Coyle.
He and Mr Cooney, and the other investors, had paid an average of €300,000 for a three-bedroom suite in the complex in 2002, he said.
They were bought from Jim Mansfield, who had developed it, on a sale and leaseback arrangement, where Mr Mansfield then leased back the suites promising investors a guaranteed rental income of about €800 a month for seven years, Mr Coyle said.
“We also got tax reliefs, so the rent paid interest on the mortgages and after seven years there was to be a review,” he explained.
“We would have the option of continuing the arrangement for another 14 years or we could take the apartments back for our own use. Everything was fine for about four years. It was thriving. The rent was coming in and we didn’t have to come near the place.”
However, in about 2008, Mr Mansfield’s financial difficulties saw his unlimited property management company at Citywest, HSS, go into liquidation. Rental income from the apartments ceased and Bank of Scotland Ireland, which was owed €140 million by HSS, had a charge on common areas in the golf hotel.
The bank had appointed Martin Ferris as a receiver to HSS in July 2010. Mr Ferris ran it as a going concern until January, when it was placed in liquidation.
“Bank Of Scotland, Ireland, you see, own the corridors and the lobby, but we own our apartments and they would not let us have access to them,” said Mr Coyle.
Showing his suite of rooms – 2189, 2191 and 2193 – he pointed out the lock which he has sawn out of the door and replaced, the plush solid mattresses on the beds, the thick lined curtains and the antique-style dark-wood furniture.
There are deep-pile burgundy carpets throughout the premises, framed prints and sketches on the walls and polished marble floors in the lobby. “It is a fine building,” said Mr Coyle. “We got the lifts working too yesterday.”
The investors were agreed they wished to proceed with developing the building as a holiday homes venture, he said, “but we need the agreement of the liquidator, Martin Ferris, for that and that is proving difficult.”
By yesterday evening he had not had contact from Mr Ferris or anyone else representing Bank of Scotland Ireland. Investors would be meeting tomorrow to discuss their next step.
Mr Ferris did not return calls from The Irish Times yesterday, while a spokesman for BOS Ireland declined to comment.
