O’Flynn gets go-ahead for €240m plan

IRISH developer Michael O’Flynn’s Tiger Developments has secured full planning for a £200 million (€240m) mixed use scheme in Scottish capital Edinburgh’s Haymarket regeneration district.

The amended scheme is now primarily for offices, after earlier plans for a 17-storey hotel tower (the same height as his Elysian tower in Cork) was rejected by Scottish ministers, despite city planning approval. The site, effectively empty for 40 years, is close to a World Heritage site.

Mr O’Flynn last night welcomed as “very good news” the decision which allows Tiger proceed with 60,000sq m of offices, a 240-bed Travelodge hotel, and 5,400 sq ft of retail, with 381 car parking spaces.

Deals with several users such as Travelodge and a car park operator were already agreed, other pre-lets would be pursued, and a 2012 start was envisaged via a joint venture with a fund, said Mr O’Flynn. He is currently building student accommodation in a €60m, 22-storey development in Wembley, London in a joint venture with Westbrook Partners.

While loans transferred early to NAMA, the development/investment entity Tiger Developments continues to be active in Britain and European markets, including Latvia, with a portfolio valued at over €1 billion.

Tiger Developments acquired the four-acre Haymarket development site on Edinburgh’s Morrison Street, close to Princes Street, from the City of Edinburgh Council back in 2006 for a reported €60m.

It has now successfully significantly increased the size of development for the site from 200,000 to over 700,000 sq ft.