Property company Kimpton sees losses more than double

Kimpton Vale, the property development company best known for illegally demolishing a 19th-century convent in south Dublin, had net liabilities of €13.3 million last year, newly filed abridged accounts show.

The company, which is headed by developer Laurence Keegan, reported a €228,922 loss for the 12 months to the end of June 2016, as against a €98.100 loss a year earlier.

Loans from Kimpton Vale were transferred to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in 2010 following a petition to wind up the the loss-making property company, which hit the headlines after it bulldozed the 1830s convent in Terenure in 2006. The firm was fined €1,000 after pleading guilty to illegally demolishing the building but later received planning permission to develop the site.

Terenure Gate, the first phase to be constructed on the site, which was acquired by Kimpton for €15 million, launched last month. When finished, the development will comprise 51 units, including a mix of two-bed and three-bed duplexes, and three-bed-plus-study terraced houses.

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Kimpton has also built several estates in Castleknock, most notably Collegewood, Collegefort, Park View and Talbot Downs and Court. The company also did Eagle Valley at Powerscourt, Enniskerry, and Windmill at Porterstown.

Significant project

According to a note included with the latest accounts, the company has recently undertaken a significant project which is fully supported by its financing institution, shareholders and directors.

“Based on the cash flow projections prepared for this project, it is envisaged that the company will be in a position to repay all creditors in full within their respective agreed timeframes,” the directors said.

Kimpton owed loans totalling €15.6 million last year, of which almost €8 million were owed to banks and €7.6 million to the company’s directors.

Mr Keegan was named in 2009 as having invested €4 million via Davy in developer Bernard McNamara's stake in the Irish Glass Bottle site, in Ringsend, Dublin. The site, which was purchased for €412 million in 2006 was later written down to €50 million by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority – a drop of 88 per cent in value.