THREE FORMER EXECUTIVES of Liam Carroll’s collapsed property empire have been engaged by its banks to oversee the management and future development of Cherrywood Business Park in Loughlinstown, Dublin 18.

Lloyds Banking Group, along with Danske Bank and AIB, have agreed an “asset-management strategy” for the 400-acre park with three of Carroll’s management staff, David Torpey, John Pope and Noel Murray.

A strong selling point for the partially developed park is that it has its own Luas station, is strategically located between the N11 and the M50 and is served by the Wyatville link road which has direct access to Killiney, Dalkey and Dún Laoghaire.

Though development work in the park over the past 15 years has largely concentrated on the office market – there is also a convenience store and childcare unit on site – Cherrywood Properties is to broaden the appeal of the park by seeking planning permission for a new town centre with shopping and leisure facilities. The park already has an €8 million rent roll from more than one million square feet of offices housing.

Under the new blueprint, lands will also be set aside for companies committed to creating new jobs. Site work is also to start shortly on the development of a park-and-ride facility beside the Luas station at Bride’s Glen.

The new executive management – known as the Property Asset Management Enhancement Services Ltd – has already sought changes in the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s draft Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) planning scheme for the park. If the planners accede to the changes sought, the banking syndicate will then lodge planning applications for the new range of facilities deemed necessary to move the park into the next phase of development.

The new management is also in favour of selling sites to companies embarking on their own developments.

In the meantime, the banking syndicate is making funding available to fit out a new office block extending to 9,898 sq m (106,540 sq ft). Floor plates will vary in size from 745 sq m to 2,685 sq m. The banks have also agreed to bankroll a second office building, Block F, which will have a floor area of 10,850 sq m (116,787 sq ft).

Cherrywood already has planning permission for two other buildings, a nine-storey block with a floor area of 9,802 sq m and a second four-storey block extending to 4,784 sq m.

Agents CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle have been engaged to handle the marketing of the next phase of Cherrywood.