The owners of a building in Cork City, that was once owned by two chaps who were bailed out by the taxpayer through the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), have submitted a request to An Bord Pleanála to clarify whether the transfer of the building, from basement to third floor, can be turned over to the accommodation of International Protection applicants as an exempted development.
The building is The Cube on Monahan Road and was once owned by a company called Monahan Road Development which was owned by Donal Leader and Jim Roynane who had €26 million of loans transferred to NAMA when it all went belly up in the property market.
A charge attached to the NAMA transfer includes the Cube, then known as Phoenix House, on Monahan Road. The guarantor of that charge was a company called Regus Plc with an address in St. Helier on the Isle of Jersey but with an office at 26 Boulevard Royal, Luxembourg. At some stage NAMA sold the property and it ended up in the hands of the current people in Luxembourg.
As noted above, Monahan Road Development Limited was jointly owned by Donal Leader and Jim and Ann Ronayne. It was liquidated in 2020. They, in common with many of Boys and Girls From NAMA, have reinvented themselves, and they are not the only ones to have later become involved – either tangentially it seems in this case – or more directly in other instances, in the new adventure of asylum accommodation which has provided a similar magnet to opportunistic capital as property once did.
And of course property ownership, knowing who you know, and access to credit is also a key factor in the new game. The extent to which the collapse of the Irish financial “elite” has facilitated the massive transfer of wealth to overseas companies in both the property and rental market, hospitality and now asylum accommodation is something that has yet to be fully analysed.
Jim Ronayne is currently the owner of Mossbawn Limited which according to its accounts, filed last July, has net liabilities of €1.2 million with creditors owed almost €3.5 million. However, another company, Travglen, which owned by himself and the missus Ann reported net assets of €2.6 million. That company has franchises in Cork City, Douglas, Mallow and Clonmel for McDonald’s, the Big Mac people.
Donal Leader only appears to have resigned as a director of Monahan Road Development Management in November 2023, after the new owners bought the place.
The application for an exemption to allow the building to be used as an IPAS centre is from Monahan Road Development Management but the building and ownership is no longer in the hands of the two boys.
The building has been owned since February 2020 by a company called Signal Real Estate Opportunities which is based in Luxembourg. There is a charge on the property of the same date to the Bank of Ireland.
It has an address in Mallow which is the address of Wentworth chartered accountants. Mallow is the home town of the Ronaynes. Its last annual return was certified in October 2024 by Bobby Sheehan who is listed as one of the directors, along with Lucia Sheehan, of Monahan Road Development Management, so it would seem worth considering if Monahan Road is the owner of Signal Real Estate Opportunities.
The two directors of Signal Real Estate who are registered here, with “responsibility for declaration of compliance”, are Mark Weeden, a UK national, and Jens Hollerman, a German national, both with addresses in Luxembourg. According to the company constitution registered here in January 2019 Weeden and Hollerman are managers and the sole shareholder is the Luxembourg company.
The company’s annual returns are signed by Bobby Sheehan and, according to its last accounts, the company is in the red to the tune of €2.27 million. So they will be depending on yourselves to ensure that that is turned around, which it certainly will be if they get approval for an IPAS centre which it is reported could accommodate hundreds of people given the size of the building.
The last time The Cube was in the news over planning was more than a decade ago when Leader and Ronayne objected to a proposal from JCD for a building nearby which they claimed would have a negative impact on their own and adjacent buildings and businesses. Permission was eventually approved by An Bord Pleanála in 2020.
Perhaps there is a parable in the fact that JCD were proposing to build offices that would and now employ people doing stuff that has some value. More of that, maybe