Mansfield’s Weston airport being sold at down-to-earth price of €3m

The airport previously owned by high-flying businessman Jim Mansfield is being sold at a down-to-earth price of €3 million.

Wed, 01 Feb, 2012 - 00:00

Tommy Barker, Property Editor

And, the likes of entrepreneurial Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is being touted as necessary to get the aerodrome business flying once more.

The Weston Executive Airport outside Dublin by Leixlip is being off-loaded by Nama via receivers KPMG, with a price of €3 million quoted for the 256 acres of land, 100,000sq ft of buildings and hangars, a period home and 28 stables and paddocks.

It compares to €160m for the “new” 2006 Cork Airport Terminal and €600m for Dublin’s Terminal 2, cost-conscious O’Leary might like to know.

It also equates to less than €12,000 an acre, and the 256-acre lot is about the same size as Michael O’Leary’s home turf and stud at Gigginstown House in Westmeath.

However, while there is less grazing value in an airport, what with all the runways and aircraft accoutrements, there is a current business which is close to break-even, say selling agents Savills.

Weston was bought by Jim Mansfield of City West hotel and other property interest repute back in 2000 for €13m, and he added to the amount of land, and upgraded the hangars for private jets.

It was seized, among other Mansfield family assets, in April, and Weston periodically hit headlines for celebrity use, breaches of planning permission and, on one occasion, being used for the illegal importation of drugs.

There has been an airport in use at Weston since the 1930s, and it has been used for pilot training and general aviation, as well as for the filming of the George Peppard WW1 movie, The Blue Max.

Noting that landing and storage charges at Weston are just 10% of those charged by DAA airports in Dublin, Cork and Shannon, agents Savills say “there’s a fantastic opportunity to build on the trading position of the current operation. All that is now needed is some ‘Michael O’Leary’ entrepreneurial spirit to drive the turnover of the business to new heights.”