Harcourt Developments, the lead developer of the Titanic Quarter project in Belfast, has cut its pretax losses by more than 76 per cent to €2.31 million after increased sales at its Park West complex in west Dublin.
Controlled by developer Pat Doherty, the company has extensive property investments in the Republic and the North, the Bahamas and Jersey. It also owns hotels in Antigua and Donegal.
Its board of directors include the former television personality Mike Murphy and Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of the Duchess of Cornwall. Industrial relations consultant Phil Flynn resigned from the board last February, soon after it emerged that a company in which he had an investment was at the centre of a Garda investigation into alleged money-laundering by the Provisional IRA.
Annual accounts just filed show that Harcourt booked an unrealised surplus of €40.28 million on the revaluation of its Irish investment properties. The revaluation exercise brought the book value of its property portfolio, which has a historic cost of €69.84 million, to €176.19 million at the end of 2004. Its net debt at year-end was €264.49 million.
The company declared a number of political donations to Government and Opposition parties in 2004. While the TDs who received money were not identified, the accounts show that the company gave €7,050 to Fianna Fáil, €5,000 to the PDs, €3,000 to Fine Gael and €2,050 to Independents.
With revenues of €43.05 million up from €34.06 million, the company reversed its operating deficit of €1.54 million in 2003 to turn an operating profit of €11.32 million the following year.
In a directors' report on May 18th last, the board said the the first 200-unit residential development at City West was sold and nearing completion, while a second 200-unit development was largely sold .
"Construction of a new hotel is about to commence. There is sufficient land for further mixed development for many years to come," said the report.
"The group also has substantial holdings at nearby Citywest which are at the planning stage. There are two further sites for industrial development in north Dublin."
The report said the company's shopping centre in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was trading well and said plans for a big redevelopment at its Galway shopping centre were well advanced. It said the Carlisle Bay Hotel in Antigua was "trading excellently" while the Redcastle Hotel in Co Donegal was being redeveloped.
Work was about to commence on the first phase of a big waterfront condominium development in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and said that Harcourt had been chosen as developer of two "substantial" schemes at the waterfront in St Heliers, Jersey.
There was no mention in the report of the Titanic Quarter project, whose plans were unveiled in Belfast on Tuesday.
