In March 2024, a company called Arkzone confirmed that they were proceeding with their plan to turn the former Lilliput Childcare centre in Rathdrum into an accommodation centre which they assured local people and Councillors would be used to house families. The proposal had led to protests when it first became public.
According to land records the site at Beechlawn has been owned by Arkzone, with an address at Coliemore House, Dalkey, south county Dublin, since December 1, 2023. There is a mortgage on the property with Fiduciam Nominees, and that charge was registered with the Companies Registration Office on November 7, 2023.
Also included in the charge are Wisteria House and Rose Cottage in the village of Cloyne, county Cork. Rose Cottage was bought for over €200,000 in May 2023. Wisteria House which shares the same address on Rock Street, Cloyne is still listed on booking.com but it seems is not taking bookings at the moment
The two directors of Arkzone are Rhona Delaney and Shane McLoughlin. They, along with Phil Loughran, a builder from Cookstown in Tyrone, are the joint owners of the company which was registered in February 2023. Delaney is a director of a number of other companies and interestingly was formerly a director of Remcoll Developments.
Older followers of this gossip page may recall that the directors of Remcoll Capital which owns Remcoll Developments are Paul Collins and Melanie McGarry who, of course, are involved in Townbe Unlimited, the company which is attempting to open an IPAS centre on the former Crown Paints site in Coolock, currently at the centre of a possibly crucial court proceeding as we reported the other day.
Melanie and her husband Peter – who were involved along with Collins in one of the pioneering trail-breaking major IPAS projects in Ballaghadereen through Combin and the Abbeyfield Hotel – are happily domiciled in Switzerland. Away from all the hustle and bustle and unpleasantness that attends their noble efforts to bring colour and joy to working class Dubs and people down in the wastes of Roscommon.
Is it not a small world? Fear not, because even though it was involved in the eviction of the residents of 30 apartment tenants in Kilbeggan at the start of 2024, Remcoll assure punters that it is a “Property Group with a Social Heart.” Bless.
Anyway, it is good to see that Rhona Delaney has retained that beating social heart in the bringing of diversity to Rathdrum. She is also as it happens a shareholder in Equinox Ventures which is a shareholder in a company called Autumnrich which in October 2022 bought 95 Hollybrook Road in leafy Dublin 3 – not far from her own gaff, so she is no NIMBY merchant – which is rented to the troubled Peter McVerry Trust which managed to acquire a significant number of properties and takes in both Irish homeless people and those seeking asylum here.
It is clear that there is a circle of savvy people who have spotted the huge and almost risk-free securing of state contracts for asylum accommodation as a lucrative opportunity. Delaney’s time spent with Remcoll in the company of IPAS entrepreneurial pioneers such as Paul Collins has obviously not been lost on her.
Nor has the potential of the sector for earning vig on mortgages gone over the heads of international financiers such as Fiduciam Nominees who hold the charge on the former Lilliput creche-now-IPAS-centre owned by Delaney and her associates in Rathdrum.
We also referred to Fiduciam the other day as the holders of a charge connected to one of the principals in the bid to place an accommodation centre close to Dublin’s iconic O’Connell Bridge.
Fiduciam describes itself as UK-based and their confidence in the Irish accommodation sector backed by the tax euros of its citizens is indicated by the fact that they focus on backing real estate deals with “maturities ranging from six months to three years between 2 million and 25 million in euros and pounds sterling.”
Which in layperson’s terms means that they are expecting a quick return on their mortgages. And why wouldn’t they, as the annual revenue from the Aston Quay building if its exemption overcomes its current hiatus is significantly greater than might be expected were it to become a humble gastro pub.
Ireland is now listed as one of Fiduciam’s core markets.
Fiduciam Nominees is registered with Companies House in London but there are no ownership details available through its Fiduciam Holdings which was registered in Guernsey and therefore beyond prying eyes. Six of its seven officers are Dutch, one is British and one is from New Zealand.