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Israeli businessman buys Ukrainian property formerly owned by Seán Quinn

Israeli businessman buys Ukrainian property formerly owned by Seán Quinn

Irish Times15 hours ago

A shopping centre and an office development in Kyiv formerly owned by businessman
Seán Quinn
have been sold by the
Irish Bank Resolution Corporation
(IBRC) to an Israeli businessman with operations in Ukraine.
The properties – the Leonardo business centre and the Ukraina shopping centre – were sold for a price between €40 million and €50 million, substantially below the €70 million to €80 million they were worth when the IBRC first got legal control over the assets, according to sources.
The sale, to Ofer Kerzner's City Capital Group (CCG) group, comes 14 years after Mr Quinn's assets were seized by
Anglo Irish Bank
after a disastrous contracts for difference investment by him in the bank's shares.
After Anglo was subsumed into the State-owned IBRC, the bank engaged in a hugely expensive multi-jurisdictional battle with Mr Quinn and his family to assert its control over an international property portfolio that included the Ukrainian assets.
READ MORE
The Quinns, using offshore companies and a series of court actions in jurisdictions around the world, sought to frustrate the bank, creating a situation that was estimated to have cost the State up to €170 million in legal fees, lost rental income, and other costs. During the battle, both Mr Quinn and Seán Quinn jnr were jailed for contempt of court.
[
IBRC liquidators hand €360m over to State as wind-up nears end
Opens in new window
]
The IBRC's efforts to assert control over the assets at one stage involved a deal with a Russian financial conglomerate, the
Alfa Group
, owned by a number of Russian oligarchs.
Eventually the battle between the Quinns and the IBRC was settled. However, by then the
developing tensions with Russia had affected property prices in Ukraine
. The deal with the Alfa Group was unwound and the properties continued to be managed on the IBRC's behalf after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
.
Mr Kerzner is an Israeli citizen who has been doing business since 1998 in Ukraine, where his City Capital Group has an extensive property portfolio. One source said the price paid by City Capital is a very good one from its point of view, but involves a substantial risk given the ongoing war with Russia.

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Israeli businessman buys Ukrainian property formerly owned by Seán Quinn
Israeli businessman buys Ukrainian property formerly owned by Seán Quinn

Irish Times

time15 hours ago

  • Irish Times

Israeli businessman buys Ukrainian property formerly owned by Seán Quinn

A shopping centre and an office development in Kyiv formerly owned by businessman Seán Quinn have been sold by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to an Israeli businessman with operations in Ukraine. The properties – the Leonardo business centre and the Ukraina shopping centre – were sold for a price between €40 million and €50 million, substantially below the €70 million to €80 million they were worth when the IBRC first got legal control over the assets, according to sources. The sale, to Ofer Kerzner's City Capital Group (CCG) group, comes 14 years after Mr Quinn's assets were seized by Anglo Irish Bank after a disastrous contracts for difference investment by him in the bank's shares. After Anglo was subsumed into the State-owned IBRC, the bank engaged in a hugely expensive multi-jurisdictional battle with Mr Quinn and his family to assert its control over an international property portfolio that included the Ukrainian assets. READ MORE The Quinns, using offshore companies and a series of court actions in jurisdictions around the world, sought to frustrate the bank, creating a situation that was estimated to have cost the State up to €170 million in legal fees, lost rental income, and other costs. During the battle, both Mr Quinn and Seán Quinn jnr were jailed for contempt of court. [ IBRC liquidators hand €360m over to State as wind-up nears end Opens in new window ] The IBRC's efforts to assert control over the assets at one stage involved a deal with a Russian financial conglomerate, the Alfa Group , owned by a number of Russian oligarchs. Eventually the battle between the Quinns and the IBRC was settled. However, by then the developing tensions with Russia had affected property prices in Ukraine . The deal with the Alfa Group was unwound and the properties continued to be managed on the IBRC's behalf after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . Mr Kerzner is an Israeli citizen who has been doing business since 1998 in Ukraine, where his City Capital Group has an extensive property portfolio. One source said the price paid by City Capital is a very good one from its point of view, but involves a substantial risk given the ongoing war with Russia.

Who owns St Stephen's Green? A guide to the buildings on Dublin's most famous square
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Irish Times

time15 hours ago

  • Irish Times

Who owns St Stephen's Green? A guide to the buildings on Dublin's most famous square

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It is the first property on the north side of Dublin's most famous square. The building – home to the Reiss clothes shop – was bought this year by the Treacy Group, a family-owned business in Co Kildare that also bought numbers two, three and five. The group owns the Courtyard Shopping Centre in Newbridge, Newbridge Retail Park, the Naas Town Centre Shopping Centre, the Showgrounds centre in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and other properties. Aviva's Irish Commercial Property Fund sought €13.5 million when it put numbers one, three and five up for sale, along with a mews building at the back. The price paid was reported to be less than that sought. READ MORE Number one occupies a prime retail location at the corner of Grafton Street and the Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number two: Also owned by the Treacy Group, the building was recently bought from Permanent TSB. It is a four-story office building which backs on to Anne's Lane. It was placed on the market last year with full vacant possession and a guide price of €2.5 million. Number three: The Treacy Group-owned property is a two-bay, four-storey former town house, built in about 1800. It was adapted to a cafe in the early 20th century, according to the National Built Heritage Service. In the wake of the 1916 Rising, the Dublin Bread Company, which was operating from the premises, was compensated for damage caused by looters. The building is currently vacant. Number four: The property, with an Insomnia coffee shop on the ground floor, was bought about two years ago by an Irish investor who property sources say wants to remain private. Public records do not show who bought the building. It was on the market in 2019 with a guide price of €4.25 million. At the time it was fully let to Insomnia for 10 years from 2021 at a rent of €150,000 per year, subject to review after five years. The commercial lease register shows the first and second floors were leased in May 2023 for €42,000 a year for seven years. Number five: Also owned by the Co Kildare-based Treacy Group, 5 St Stephen's Green is currently vacant. Numbers two, three and five are on the letting market, with Colliers looking for tenants. A former town house, number five was built as a pair with number four around 1800. Numbers six and seven: The two buildings were bought in 2023 by the Oakmount property group, then run by Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan. The Oakmount subsidiary that bought the property, Wonder Bay Ltd, had a receiver appointed to it in March by Relm Finance, a non-bank lender specialising in property investment based in Shannon, Co Clare. The Irish flexible workspace provider Grafter rented the property in 2022. A 25-year lease at an annual rent of €400,000 dated December 2022 is shown on the Commercial Lease Register. Numbers six-seven St Stephen's Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number eight: This building is owned by the Irish alternative investment business, Abbey Capital, which uses it as its headquarters. Abbey, which is majority-owned by Irish investment managers Tony Gannon and Tim Brosnan, builds and manages funds for high-net-worth individuals, companies and banks, and has a global client base. Number eight was formerly the Hibernia United Services Club, a gentleman's club, from 1845 to 2004. It was bought by the late Hugh O'Regan during the property boom using funding from Anglo Irish Bank. The building ended up under the control of the State-owned National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which later sold it. Number nine: This is 'one of the most architecturally and artistically significant buildings on Saint Stephen's Green,' according to the National Built Heritage Service . It is owned by the Stephen's Green Club , founded by Daniel O'Connell and others in 1840. The club has meeting rooms, a bar, restaurant and bedrooms and can also be hired for weddings and corporate events. Membership fees vary between €1,400 and €3,000 per year depending on membership type. Number nine was built in the 1750s for the Rev Cutts Harman, Dean of Waterford. Number nine, 'one of the most architecturally and artistically significant buildings on Saint Stephen's Green'. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 10: This property is owned since January 2022 by Goldstein Property Icav, a property investment vehicle managed by Irish businessman Mel Sutcliffe's Quanta Capital group. The three-storey was built around 1820 and houses the Green Phone Box restaurant on its ground floor. Receivers were appointed last year to several properties owned by a sub-fund of the Goldstein vehicle on behalf of Shannon-based Relm Finance, which is backed by the US investment group Avenue Capital. The property was not among those to which receivers were appointed, according to Quanta. Number 11: The building is owned by Thomas, Elizabeth, Tomas and Hubert Barry and is home to the law offices of Thomas Barry & Co solicitors, as well as several commercial tenants. A Dublin 6 company called Adkerson Commercial Ltd, which is owned by the Barry family, receives fees for managing properties owned by the family, according to its filed accounts. Number 11 is a three-bay, three-storey former house over basement, built in about 1820, and forms a pair with number 10, according to the National Built Heritage Service. Colm Keena takes a closer look at three St Stephen Green properties: numbers 8, 41, and 70. Number 12: This building is home to an outlet of the Remus Uomo men's clothing brand which, despite its name, is part of the family-owned Douglas and Grahame Group based in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. The family-run business last year celebrated its 100th year. Group company ADMC Property Ltd acquired number 12 in May 2017, according to filings in Tailte Éireann , formerly the Land Registry. The group had a turnover in 2024 of £27.6 million (€33 million), down from £30.7 million the previous year. Number 12, a three-bay, four-storey building built in 1902, was designed for the Provincial Bank of Ireland. Number 13: Standing at the corner of the Green and Dawson Street, the building is owned by members of the Beatty family, a Dublin family associated with the Vincent & Beatty law firm, established more than 150 years ago. Number 13, also known as Park Chambers, is a five-storey commercial building over a concealed basement that was built in about 1905. It fronts on to both St Stephen's Green and Dawson Street. The ground floor houses a House of Wool retail outlet, while the upper floors are used as offices. The top floor is a two-bed penthouse apartment that can be rented for €3,400 a month on the property website Number 13, on the western corner of the Green and Dawson Street. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 14: This building is owned by Dublin City Council. According to a 2023 report to the council prepared by its executive, the building was leased that year to at a rate of €218,475 annually (€45 per square foot), with a 20-year lease agreed at this rate replacing an earlier lease from 2013. Taxback, now called Clunetech, is a suite of technology companies established by the Irish entrepreneur and founder of Terry Clune . As part of the deal with the council, the tech business signed a deed renouncing renewal rights under the landlord and tenant law, and both sides agreed to a rent review every five years, and a mutual break clause after 10 years. Number 14, owned by Dublin City Council. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 15: This building is also owned by the council. It is home to the Little Museum of Dublin , a registered charity and popular tourist destination founded by curator Trevor White in 2011. The museum reopened on Thursday after the building underwent a renovation. The council is one of the museum's sponsors. Number 15 was built in the 1770s by Andrew Leet for Gustavus Hume, a surgeon and property developer who bought land on the east side of St Stephen's Green and built several houses there. He also laid out nearby Hume Street and Ely Place (formerly Hume Row), according to the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Hume died at home at 63 Dawson Street in 1812. Number 16: The property was acquired in 2003 by Paul and Joanne Daly, according to Tailte Éireann property records. The Dalys are the children of David Daly (74), one of Ireland's most successful property developers by way of his Albany Homes residential construction company. Number 16 was formerly the head office of the business run by well-known property developer the late Patrick Gallagher. It is attached by way of a glass bridge at the rear to a substantially larger, modern building that faces on to the Mansion House on Dawson Street. Number 16, acquired in 2003 by Paul and Joanne Daly. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni The original office building at the rear was developed by Gallagher, who was associated with a number of developments in the area around the Green in the 1970s that involved the destruction of older buildings. This building is let on behalf of October Investments, the property-owning business run by the Daly family. The entire building contains more than 3,600sq m (39,000sq ft) of office space, of which 840sq m are in the heritage building. Number 16 was built in 1776 by Gustavus Hume and was later the residence of the Church of Ireland archbishops of Dublin. Number 17: The property is home to the Kildare Street and University Club, a private members' club formed upon the amalgamation in 1977 of the Kildare Street Club, founded 1782, and the Dublin University Club, founded 1850. The Kildare Street Club was formerly based on nearby Kildare Street in the building currently occupied by the Alliance Française. The building, a four-bay, four-storey over basement house, was built in the late 1770s for Joseph Leeson, of Russborough, Co Wicklow. The university referred to in the club's name is Trinity College Dublin. Leeson inherited a fortune from his father, also Joseph Leeson, who was a brewer and property developer. Numbers 18 to 21: Better known as Stephen Court, this modern building was formerly the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank, which collapsed into State hands in the 2008-09 financial crash. It is currently owned by Irish Life Assurance, which successfully applied in 2023 for planning permission to demolish it and build new offices. Currently empty, the premises was developed by Irish Life. The proposal to demolish it and replace it with another commercial building, with substantially larger floor space, was resisted by several parties, but the appeals were later withdrawn. Stephen Court was designed by the Irish architect Andrew Devane. Completed in 1971, its construction involved the demolition of four 18th century buildings. Number 22: This building was at one stage a private members' club but now houses the Town House on the Green boutique hotel, the Floritz restaurant and the Cellar 22 wine bar and restaurant, all business names owned by the Fitzwilliam Hotel Group. That is, in turn, owned by businessman Michael Holland. The three-bay, four-storey over basement house was built in the late 18th century for Thomas Lighton, a grocer who made his fortune with the East India Company. For about a century, up to the 1990s, it was home to the Ancient and Most Benevolent Order of the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, formed to campaign against the practice of duelling. Numbers 22-23. Until the 1990s number 22 was home to the Ancient and Most Benevolent Order of the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, formed to campaign against duelling. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 23: This building is owned by Eugene Murtagh , the billionaire founder of Kingspan , the building materials multinational based in Kingscourt, Co Cavan. The property is currently the head office of Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland, part of the US Cantor Fitzgerald global securities group. It was formerly used by Anglo Irish Bank and then the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the State-owned entity into which Anglo was subsumed following its nationalisation in 2009. The late 18th-century house was built for architect David Weir, who probably also designed number 22. Number 24: The Lisney Building is owned by New Ireland Assurance. It was recently refurbished and is scheduled to reopen this summer. It will be rented by Pembr, the Irish serviced-office business owned by Bob Manson and Thomas Lenehan that offers serviced office accommodation in multiple buildings around Dublin city. Completed in 1973, the Lisney Building replaced a regency building on the site and was used as a head office by the Lisney real estate business for many years. It was designated a protected structure by Dublin City Council in 2020, following submissions arguing it was one of the most successful modernist interventions in Dublin's Georgian core. Number 25: This property is another on the Green owned by Eugene Murtagh, the Kingspan founder. Developed in the 1970s, the building is joined at the back with numbers 14 and 15 Kildare Street. The office building is rented by the Dublin serviced-offices provider Pembr, which in turn offers space in the building to its clients. Among Pembr's clients is Temu, the Chinese online retail giant that moved its principal executive offices from the US to the first floor of 25 St Stephen's Green in May 2024. The latest accounts for Irish Temu subsidiary, Whaleco Technology Ltd, which has its registered office in the St Stephen's Green building, show revenues of $758 million (€668 million) in the 17 months to the end of 2023. Temu is just one of a number of tenants in the building. Number 26: The James Adam's auctioneers and valuers business has been based at number 26, on the corner of the Green and Kildare Street since it acquired and renovated the premises in 1968. Number 26, James Adam's auctioneers and valuers. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Numbers 27 to 34: Perhaps the square's most famous resident, The Shelbourne Hotel stands at numbers 27 to 34 of the Green. It is owned by Archer Hotel Capital, a Dutch specialist European hotel investment business that owns 14 hotels with a gross asset value of about €2.5 billion. The company bought the Dublin hotel last year from the US global real estate business, Kennedy Wilson, which purchased it in 2014. The Shelbourne Hotel, 27-34 St Stephen's Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni The original hotel building was located at numbers 27 to 31, a corner-sited 10-bay, five-storey structure with dormer attic. It was built in about 1865 and is 'the last of the city's grand 19th-century hotels,' according to the National Built Heritage Service. The hotel now includes numbers 32 to 34 – three properties that were built in the 1770s. Bringing My colourised 1890s photo of — Rob Cross (@RobCross247) Numbers 35 to 38: These buildings make up Huguenot House, a mostly commercial five-storey over basement property owned by Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Group, which developed the property in 2002. The 3,252sq m building has retail and commercial space and a penthouse that was offered some years ago for lease at a rate of €25,345 per year. The commercial lease register shows 185.4sq m of office space on the fifth floor were let last year for 10 years at an average annual rate of €108,290. The building abuts the small Huguenot Cemetery where members of the Huguenot community that fled France in the wake of the Edict of Nantes (1598) were buried over the centuries. The last such burial took place in 1901. The east side of the Green Numbers 39 and 40: These buildings make up a branch of the Bank of Ireland. It sold the property in 2006 as part of a sale and leaseback project involving several of its properties. Tailte Éireann records show that an entity, possibly a partnership called Sandtone, which has an address at A&L Goodbody solicitors, Dublin, has owned the building since June 2015. The same entity owns the former Bank of Ireland premises at 33-34 Arran Quay, Dublin 7, the records show. The three-storey bank, built by Cramptons in 1913 on the corner with Merrion Row, has a five-bay elevation to the Green and a four-bay elevation to Merrion Row. Number 41: This building has been owned by Molana Property Ltd, formerly Press Up Entertainment Group Ltd, since March 2023. The building is the site of the Greyson restaurant and entertainment venue. The restaurant is part of the Press Up Hospitality Group that was taken over in a debt for equity swap earlier this year by the London-based financial business Cheyne Capital , which rebranded it as the Eclective Hospitality Group. Number 41 is a three-bay, three-storey over basement house that was built for Ruth Croker in 1745. It is notable for the front facade being covered with an aged Virginia creeper, the branches of which have spread on to the fronts of adjacent buildings. 45 St. Stephen's Green must host one of the oldest Virgina creepers in Dublin, its massive knarled trunk sprawling up the soft bricks of its 18th-century façade for the best part of a century. This curious house, belying hipsterisation, is wonderfully intact beneath the leaves 🧵 — Dublin Civic Trust (@dubcivictrust) Numbers 42 and 43: These properties are owned by Boston College, which bought the buildings in 1999 for the use of visiting students and academics. Boston College, based in Massachusetts, is a private Jesuit university founded in 1863. [ Boston College: 'People in the Republic don't understand unionists. But they don't understand northern nationalists either' Opens in new window ] The then separate two-bay, four-storey over basement houses were built as a pair in the mid-1770s by Benjamin Rudd, a Dublin architect who also built numbers 14, 15 and 17 Molesworth Street. The two buildings have since been joined. Dublin law firm Arthur Cox, established in 1920, acquired numbers 42 and 43 in the 1920s. In the 1970s it spread into the then new office building at numbers 44 and 45 and in 1985 it added 41 to its address. The firm moved to Earlsfort Terrace in 1997. Numbers 41-44. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Numbers 44 and 45: These were long the head office of the Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co law firm. It leased the buildings from the late Ivor Fitzpatrick and his wife, Susan, in 2005, on a 35-year lease, according to Tailte Éireann filings. Mr Fitzpatrick died last year and the property is currently on the market with full vacant possession at a guide price of €10 million. The modern offices, on the corner of St Stephen's Green and Hume Street, replaced two buildings from the late 18th century that were built at the time that Hume Street was first being laid out. The destruction of the corner buildings in the 1960s was highly controversial. Numbers 44-45 St Stephen's Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Numbers 46 to 49: Located on the corner with Hume Street, the buildings are part of a 5,400sq m (57,900sq ft) commercial offices development known as the St Stephen's Green Estate, owned by the Irish real estate business Iput Real Estate, one of the largest owners of office space in Dublin. The commercial lease register shows that the first floor of number 46, and two car-parking spaces, were the subject of a 10-year lease in 2022 at a rate of €178,000 per year. Numbers 47-49, seen from within St Stephen's Green. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Some 470sq m on the ground floor of 47-49 were leased in 2023 for 10 years at an average annual rent of €327,536. The four buildings at 46 to 49 were demolished in 1969, at the same time as numbers 44 and 45 on the other side of Hume Street, by the Green Development Company, which also demolished numbers one, two, 18, and 19 Hume Street. Numbers 50-51: The Department of Justice is based in 51 St Stephens Green – which comprises Numbers 50 and 51 – since 2010. Both buildings are owned by the State. The department formerly had offices at 75 St Stephen's Green, and at number 94, both on the south side of St Stephen's Green. Number 51 was built in around 1760, with flanking wings added in 1848. It housed the Museum of Irish Industry, then the Royal College of Science in Ireland, and later again served as the headquarters of the Office of Public Works. Number 52: The property was built in 1771 by Gustavus Hume, who also built number 53. It is owned by the State and is currently home to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Numbers 53 to 55: These are linked buildings and home to Loreto College, a primary and second level girls' school run by a Catholic order of nuns known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The private school was founded in 1833 on Harcourt Street and moved to number 53 in 1841. In 1986 a fire in the school claimed the lives of six elderly nuns, all retired teachers, who were sleeping on the top floor of the four-storey building. The fire is believed to have started accidentally. Three other nuns in the top floor dormitory managed to escape. Numbers 56 to 60: Formerly the site of St Vincent's hospital, the buildings are the headquarters of Permanent TSB, which owns the building. During the 19th century the Religious Sisters of Charity purchased the buildings then on the site, which dated from the 1760s, and used it as the site of St Vincent's hospital. During this period the facades of 55 and 56 were entirely reconstructed. In 1970, after the hospital moved to its current location at Elm Park, Dublin 4, the property was sold to the Lyon Group, which converted the site into an office block. New facades on the buildings were reconstructed to resemble what they had looked like in the 18th century. The buildings were bought by the Irish Permanent Building Society in 1979. The society became Permanent TSB following its amalgamation with TSB Bank in 2001. Numbers 61 to 64: The building at the location on St Stephen's Green East was demolished in 1799 by the Wide Street Commission to accommodate the widening of Leeson Street. Numbers 62 to 64 St Stephen's Green were demolished in 1839 to accommodate the construction of Earlsfort Terrace. The south side of the Green Numbers 65 to 68: Home to Aercap House, an office building on the corner with Earlsfort Terrace developed by the businessman Denis O'Brien , who spent a reported €30 million on it at a time when construction activity in the city was at a standstill. The building, leased by the US-Irish aviation leasing company Aercap, has been owned since June 2022 by the Irish Property Investment Fund Icav, a collective fund for which the minimum subscription is €100,000. The Irish Times has not been able to identify who owns the fund. O'Brien bought the building then on the site, Canada House, in 2001, for €24 million, and engaged the property developer Bernard McNamara to work on its transformation. When the new building was sold to the French fund, CNP Assurance, for €80 million, in 2016, O'Brien was estimated to have made a profit of about €30 million from the venture. Numbers 65-68, Aercap House. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Numbers 69 to 71: Now known as 70 St Stephen's Green, this is a recently redeveloped office block owned by Irish Life. Formerly Hainault House, the US pharmaceutical corporation Horizon Therapeutics leased the building while it was still being developed. The register of commercial leases shows a 20-year lease dated 2021 at an average annual rent of €3.88 million. Horizon, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, used the address as its global head office but in 2023 the corporation was taken over by another publicly listed US corporation, Amgen. The St Stephen's Green building is currently empty. It is expected the lease will be assigned to a new tenant. Numbers 72 to 76: This contemporary office complex known as 75 St Stephen's Green is owned since 2015 by Cedar Real Estate Investment Icav, part of the US asset management business, the Blackstone Group. A 1960s office development on the site was occupied by the Department of Justice up to 2004, when it was acquired by Shelbourne Developments for €52.3 million. Since then the building has been upgraded on a number of occasions. Number 77: The building has been owned since July 2022 by The Davy Platform Icav, an asset management vehicle set up by the Davy financial services group but now owned by IQ-EQ, a global asset management group with more than $750 billion (€660 billion) in assets under administration. The business activities of the fund include refurbishing premises for the use of the State in its social housing programme. Number 77, formerly Loreto Hall, is currently used by the Peter McVerry Trust housing charity to provide accommodation. The building was for decades used by the Loreto nuns as a hostel for female students, and later as home for working and retired members of the order. The order quit the building in 2015, when it was sold for €7.55 million. New owner Brown Table Solutions Ltd, which has since been dissolved, secured planning permission for a hotel, but the project never went ahead. Property records indicate the building changed ownership in 2022. Numbers 78 and 79: The buildings are owned by the State and occupied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The four-bay, three-storey over basement former town houses with dormer attics were built as a pair in 1881, as an extension to Iveagh House. Numbers 80 and 81: This is the address of Iveagh House, which is owned by the State and occupied by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Originally a pair of houses built in the 1730s, they were remodelled as a single building and given a new face in 1862 after they were bought by Benjamin Guinness. Numbers 78 and 79 were later added as an extension. Rupert Guinness donated the house, but not its contents, to the State in 1939, after which it was renamed Iveagh House. The Iveagh Gardens, at the back of the house, had been given by another member of the Guinness family to University College Dublin some decades earlier. Numbers 82 to 84: This is the site of the Staunton's on the Green hotel, which is owned by Staunton's Properties Ltd, an Irish company that is ultimately owned by O'Connell Street Properties LLC, in Delaware, in the United States, according to public records. Richard Driehaus, of Chicago, a wealthy fund manager who died in 2021, had an interest in period buildings and bought the St Stephen's Green buildings in 2017 when they were already in use as a hotel. The hotel business is owned by Fionn MacCumhaill, from Glasnevin, Dublin, who also owns the Castle Hotel, off Parnell Square, and the adjacent Walton's Hotel, both in Dublin 1. All three buildings date from the 1730s. Number 84 was once the home of the politician Henry Grattan. Numbers 85 to 86: The property, Newman House, is owned by University College Dublin (UCD). The buildings were the site of its precursor, the Catholic University of Ireland. The latter university opened in 1854 under the rectorship of John Henry Cardinal Newman, the London-born Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and spent four years living in Ireland. To the east of Newman House is the Aula Maxima, or Great Hall, built in 1878. The hall and Newman House are now home to the Museum of Literature Ireland. Number 85 was built in 1738 for Capt Hugh Montgomery, who died soon after its completion. A notice in June 1741 announcing the sale of the house said it contained 'a room that can rightly lay claim to be the most beautiful in Ireland'. Number 86 was built around 1765 for Richard Chapel Whaley who, according to the National Built Heritage Service, was 'a notorious rake and gambler'. The entrance to the Newman University Church. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni The entrance to the Newman University Church, or the Church of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, is located here, between numbers 86 and 87. The church was built in 1855/1856 in the Byzantine Revival style due to Cardinal Newman's dislike of Gothic architecture. It is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. Number 87: This is where Cardinal Newman lived for a time. It is currently occupied by the Office of the Independent Examiner of Security Legislation, the country's first national security watchdog which has just been set up. The building is owned by property developer David Daly. The former town house, built in about 1730 as a pair with number 88, has a 'Dutch Billy' roof, with the front-facing gables later covered, leaving the building with its distinctive two windowed room on the top floor. Number 88: This building is owned by the Irish property developer David Daly and is occupied by the public relations firm, Q4. The building dates from the 1730s. Number 89: This is a two-bay, four-storey former town house, built in about 1820. It has a gated 'carriage arch' on the ground floor. The building was converted into one-bed apartments about 18 years ago, with one apartment on each of the upper floors and a communal utility area in the basement. The building was placed on the market in 2022, with the apartments offered at €595,000 each, or the entire building for €1.78 million. The apartments are now owned by different owners. The archway is owned by IPB Insurance, owner of numbers 90 and 91. Numbers 90 and 91: These are four-storey over basement joined buildings currently occupied by Phoenix, the London-based financial services group that took over Standard Life in 2021. The property is owned by IPB Insurance, a mutual insurance body, of which public bodies such as the local authorities and the HSE are members. Originally town houses, numbers 90 and 91 were built as a pair in about 1820, according to the National Built Heritage Service. Numbers 92 and 93: The buildings are paired town houses built in about 1840 with a shared carriage arch in the centre for use by both. The property is owned by father and son property developers, Charlie and Max O'Reilly Hyland. Dublin City Council granted planning permission last year to their company, ORHRE SSG Ltd, to develop the property, converting the two town houses, which were being used as offices, into apartments. Planning was also granted for the building of a 120-bed, seven-storey hotel at the rear of the building, overlooking Iveagh Gardens. Work is currently ongoing. Number 94 is a former Methodist church, built in 1842-3. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 94: A two-storey former Methodist church, built 1842-3, it was gutted by fire in the 1960s and rebuilt as an office block in the 1970s, with the temple-fronted facade retained. Now in office use, it is the Irish headquarters of Kennedy Wilson, the real estate investment company with global assets of $28 billion, a head office in California and shares quoted on the New York Stock Exchange. The property uses the address 94 St Stephen's Green, although the National Built Heritage Services lists it as a former Methodist church and gives number 94 to the small residential premises alongside the church that was used as a priest's house. The former manse house is now called The Residence and contains four apartments accessed through a gate on the west side of the former church. Numbers 95 and 96: These buildings have no nameplates outside their doors, which have the appearance of being infrequently used. The rear of the buildings, accessed by way of a laneway at the side, are directly attached to an apartment development, Russell Court, that is part of the modern Stokes Place office and apartment development. At least some of the apartments, which are individually owned, are incorporated into the St Stephen's Green buildings. Number 97: This building is owned since 2022 by DTIL Ltd, a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company associated with the Dublin financial services business, Davy. DTIL, which has purchased several valuable properties in Dublin in recent years, has an address in the BVI at the offices of Icaza, Gonzalez-Ruiz & Aleman, a firm that says it is a 'premier trust company, capable of assisting [high net worth individuals] and their families in the succession of their patrimonies for generations to come'. Built as a pair with number 98, 97 is a three-bay four-storey former town house over basement, built in about 1740, according to the National Built Heritage Service. The building is currently let to Michael Boylan and Co solicitors. Number 98: This property is owned since 2015 by entities associated with the Davy financial services group. Initially owned by Davy Target Investments Plc, ownership was then switched to Davy Target Investments Icav, before, in 2020, ownership was switched to Davy Target Investments Ltd, in the British Virgin Islands. The ultimate beneficial ownership of the building, which is used as offices, is not publicly available information. The commercial lease register shows a 2021 five-year lease at an average annual rent of €115,000. Number 99: This building is owned since November 2021 by DTIL Ltd, the BVI company associated with Davy that also owns number 97 and other properties in Dublin. The four-storey over basement building, a former town house, was built in 1742 and is currently in use as offices. Numbers 99-100, owned by DTIL Ltd. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 100: The building has been owned since June 2022 by DTIL Ltd, with a 'c/o' address at Davy. The address is used by Novellus Finance, a bridging finance company cofounded by its chief executive, Billy McManus, a nephew of the Irish billionaire JP McManus. Number 100 is a four-storey over basement former town house built circa 1750. Numbers 101 to 104: Currently the offices of the KPMG financial services group, the property is owned since 2022 by KW Investment Funds Icav, according to property records. The investment fund is part of Kennedy Wilson, the US property giant that has invested heavily in Irish property since the crash. Planning permission has been granted for the demolition of the 1970s office block on the site and its replacement with an eight-storey block as part of a wider development stretching back along Stokes Place. The corner site was formerly the site of the Russell Hotel, which operated out of four Georgian houses and was for many years famous for its restaurant, which was awarded a Michelin star in 1974. The hotel had closed by the time the award was announced and it was later demolished. The Hotel Russell at 101 - 104 St. Stephen's Green (corner of Harcourt Street). Operated from c1880 to 1974 when it received Ireland's first Michelin star and subsequently closed its doors and was demolished to be replaced by the office of KPMG — Architecture of Dublin (@Archidub1) Numbers 105 to 110: These buildings on the southwest corner of St Stephen's Green appear to have disappeared as addresses during the making of Harcourt Street by the Wide Streets Commission in the 18th century, and the more recent widening of Cuffe Street and building of the of Ardilaun complex, of which 111 St Stephen's Green is a part. Numbers 105 and 106 were on the south side of the Green and were knocked down for road widening, while numbers 107 to 110 were on the west side and were also demolished. The west side of the Green Number 111: This is a modern building on the corner of St Stephen's Green and Cuffe Street, backing towards Cuffe Lane. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland acquired it from the Marlet group more than 20 years ago, according to property records. It is used as for administrative and other purposes associated with the university's research, innovation, pharmacy and health sciences divisions. Noumber 111, acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland more than 20 years ago. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Dublin Unitarian Church: An L-shaped Gothic Revival church, built 1861-63, it belongs to the Dublin Unitarian Church, a dissenting church known as such because it did not sign up to the Westminster Confessions of Faith in the 17th century. Until the early 1800s, the church was illegal, meeting in various locations around the city. A change in the law in 1818 led to the decision of the church to adopt a more public presence, leading eventually to the construction of the St Stephen's Green building. Numbers 112 to 114: This is the location of a large €95 million development on the site of the former Eircom HQ where a new campus for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is due to open later this year. Numbers 112 to 114. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 119: This is a four-storey over basement former town house, built in about 1760. It was acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons in June 2022, according to property records. The building was home for many years to the well-known restaurant Shanahan's, which is now closed. A new tenant for the restaurant is being sought. Number 119, acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons in 2022 and formerly home to Shanahan's restaurant. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Number 120: This building was for a long time unusual as being an entire building on St Stephen's Green designed for residential purposes by one owner. It is owned by Frank and Carol Mallon, of Liffey Meats, according to property records. In recent years parts of the building have been rented out as office space. Numbers 121 and 122: These buildings comprise RCSI House, a recently renovated part of the Royal College of Surgeons campus. The building, which is owned by the university, sits between Proud's Lane and York Street. Number 123: The first address of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the detached seven-bay, two-storey over concealed basement property was built in about 1810, enlarged in 1827, and it is bounded by York Street to the south and Glovers Alley to the north. The college, which was granted university status in 2019, is a not-for-profit medical education institution founded by Royal Charter in 1784. 123 St Stephen's Green, the first address of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni Numbers 124 to 127: This is a modern commercial building owned by John and Bernadette Gallagher and Ms Gallagher's sister, Ann Roche, according to property records. The Gallaghers, formerly the owners of the PV Doyle hotel group, are well-known property investors and significant shareholders in the Doyle Collection hotel group. Their Crownway investment group owns a substantial number of properties in Ireland, Poland, France and the UK. Numbers 127-128: The properties are owned by Michael Holland's Ampleforth Ltd, which operates the five-star Fitzwilliam Hotel at the address. The company also owns the Town House on the Green, at 22 St Stephen's Green, and the Bailey pub, on nearby Duke Street. Numbers 129-134: This is the location of the St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, which is owned by DTDL Ltd, the BVI company associated with a substantial investment fund that uses the address of Dublin financial services business Davy. Numbers 128-134: Tthe St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni DTDL is behind a €100 million plan to substantially develop the centre, which sits on the corner with South King Street. The shopping centre was built in the 1980s on a site that had been assembled since the mid-1960s by the Slazenger family, leading to the destruction of the older buildings on the corner and the closure of the once-legendary Dandelion Market. The ultimate beneficial owner or owners of the shopping centre is not known. St Stephen's Green before the shopping centre. — Photos of Dublin (@PhotosOfDublin)

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