Developer resisting bid to take possession

A developer is resisting a bid by a receiver, appointed by a fund that bought loans of himself and his company from Nama, for injunctions restraining interference with a bid to take possession of 57 apartments in Dublin’s docklands.

Hugh McGinley says he and his son Daniel have devoted most of the last eight years to enhancing the value of the apartments at Alexandra Place, East Road, Dublin.

Unlike Promontoria Eagle Ltd (PEL), the firm that bought his loans and "which did not even exist until last year", his company has been a source of employment for himself, his son and others since 2000. He had "stuck with it through the darkest of times" and wished it to provide employment into the future "long after the international financiers behind PEL have moved on from these shores to other pastures for further short-term profit opportunities".

He said, after agreements for sale of most of the Alexandra Place units fell through at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, he spent considerable funds fitting out and renting the apartments, with all rental proceeds going towards repaying interest on bank loans, maintaining them and resolving a major car park issue.

They had planned to sell the 57 apartments this year, which could realise up to €14m for Nama and the State and, with the agreement of Nama, an estate agent was appointed in February 2014, he said. The case continues before Mr Justice David Keane.