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Irish property developer Bernard McNamara owes $2.1billion debt

By
DONAL THORNTON,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, January 14, 2010, 7:21 AM
Updated Thursday, January 14, 2010, 7:30 AM

 

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Bernard McNamara

Irish property tycoon Bernard McNamara has told the Irish press that he is completely "broke" and has a debt of up to $2.1billion.

Yesterday, Ireland's Commercial Court issued an order asking him to pay $89million to investors that had financially backed his purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin city. The 24-acre site was bought for $598million in 2006, and McNamara owns two-thirds of the property.

After the Commercial Court hearing, McNamara released a statement to the press saying that he was resigning as executive chairman of Michael McNamara Co Ltd.

The statement read: "Michael McNamara Co is a legally separate and profitable entity from him and from his property development activities and therefore unaffected by today’s judgment.”

McNamara was also interviewed on national radio, where he said the McNamara building firm was profitable and completely "ringfenced" from his other businesses.

His home is located on Ailesbury road in Dublin, which is the richest street in Ireland and home to wealthiest people in the country. It houses a swimming pool covered with a retractable ballroom floor, and is supposedly better than any house on MTV’s “Cribs.” McNamara believes he will most likely have to sell it.

At the height of the economic boom, McNamara was thought to be worth in the region of $500 million.

“I was being told I was worth that by all these valuation experts and chartered accountants," he said. McNamara also said that during the height of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland, banks lined up to offer him development loans.

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