McKillen leads consortium in €12m deal for site of Dublin’s historic Ormond Hotel
The long-awaited and – at times – highly contentious redevelopment of the site of the former Ormond Hotel on Dublin ’s Ormond Quay Upper may finally have moved closer to becoming a reality some 20 years on from its closure. Having remained a closely guarded secret at the time of its off-market sale for €12 million by Malaysian-based Monteco Holdings earlier this year, the identity of the historic hotel site’s new owner has now been confirmed by The Irish Times as being a consortium led by Paddy McKillen snr . An examination of the details of the transaction, which were lodged recently at the Land Registry, shows that a company called Raze Unlimited secured ownership of the property on July 17 th . An inspection of the company’s filings with the Isle of Man Companies Registry shows that the firm was incorporated on June 4 th last with McKillen’s close associate, Liam Cunningham, taking up the role of director alongside former AIB director and well-known financial adviser Bernard Somers. Somers stepped down as a director of the company on September 22 nd and was replaced in the role by another of McKillen’s long-standing associates, Diarmaid Mullarkey. While the €12 million McKillen paid for the former Ormond Hotel is a multiple of the price Monteco Holdings paid for the property in 2013, it is still far short of the €17 million developer Bernard McNamara splashed out on the hotel’s purchase a year after its closure, in 2006. McNamara put it back on the market in 2009 shortly after his various businesses began to experience financial difficulty, with an asking price of €7 million, but the hotel, which features in the Sirens chapter of Ulysses, failed to sell. In 2017, and following a protracted planning process, Monteco secured planning permission for the development of a new 120-bedroom hotel on the site, along with food, beverage and meeting facilities distributed across 5,850sq m (62,970sq ft) over seven floors. Contacted for comment on his plans for the site, McKillen said: “I’m delighted to be part of the consortium that has acquired the Ormond Hotel. I want to tap into the vast experience and expertise of my three sons and hope they will play an active part in giving this amazing project the attention and vision it deserves.”