O’Flynn Construction gets finance for €57m project in Wembley
The Cork-based firm is set to build a 22-storey tower — taller than its Elysian Cork city apartment block — via a joint venture with a US private equity firm, and a refinancing deal with Bank of Scotland.
Company managing director Michael O’Flynn confirmed they had overcome development funding difficulties and agreed a joint development with US-based Westbrook Partners to build a 435- bed student accommodation centre overlooking Wembley Stadium. He said, other similar investments will be “vigorously pursued”.
One of the O’Flynn Group’s companies, Victoria Hall, has around 6,000 student accommodation beds, primarily in Britain, but also in Cork city, in Bremen, Germany, and in Valencia in Spain.
The Wembley land for the latest scheme was bought some time ago by O’Flynn Construction, in an Anglo Irish Bank-funded deal.
Now, that loan has been refinanced via Royal Bank of Scotland to progress the 435-bed development, on a three-quarter-acre site by the College of North West London, and Wembley Park tube station.
“Finance is the lifeblood or raw material of our industry,” said Mr O’Flynn, adding: “In the pre-NAMA vacuum, banks weren’t going to allow people to invest in anything new, so you had two options; do nothing, or find another way of doing it.”
Mr O’Flynn, who is on the Construction Industry Federation’s committee dealing with NAMA and who has had many of his group’s loans transferred to NAMA, said “there is no one anticipating NAMA to be approving any development of any scale anywhere for the foreseeable future, other than consolidating what is there, figuring out what is best for the country”.
According to a statement, Royal Bank of Scotland “has provided a senior development finance loan facility, with equity being provided by Clovis Student Housing Group, a Jersey- based affiliate of Westbrook Partners”.
The building contractor is British-based Mace Living. Work on the 15-month build starts this month.
According to Mr O’Flynn: “This is an excellent opportunity for the O’Flynn Group and its partners to take our joint UK and European student housing business to a new level. We will continue pursuing other opportunities in this sector vigorously.”
