Stonebridge, a new development at Dromahair, Co Leitrim, has become an unlikely hit for the Westlife singer Shane Filan, through his new property venture, Shafin Developments. When word spread that the singer would be putting in a personal appearance to plug the houses in late January, fans queued around the block to catch a glimpse of the balladeering builder.
“We had plenty of families and their kids, but also a lot of women who came to have a gawk. But I was there to meet people and talk about the houses — I wasn’t singing songs or anything,” says Filan, 26, who lives in the Sligo area with his wife, Gillian, and their daughter, Nicole.
“When the show house was ready, we used Shane to the max to generate publicity,” admits Shane’s brother, Finbarr, who is a co-director of Shafin developments.
“We had a few couples who arrived with a daughter telling them, ‘You’re buying one of these’,” says Finbarr. Over the official opening weekend, almost 1,300 people lined up to scrutinise the show house. Within days, the second phase of the family-oriented scheme had practically sold out; the first phase had already been selling quietly off-plan at the agent’s office since August of last year.
Shane, whose career with Westlife has already earned him millions, may have seemed an unlikely contender for a hit in the property development charts. But while many workers on construction sites were dreaming of being pop stars, Shane was privately ogling construction cranes and half-built apartment schemes from the Westlife tour bus, daydreaming of bricks and mortar, rather than fast cars and leggy blondes. “Whenever I’d be on the road, I’d see lots of hotels and apartment buildings and for some reason I’d always look at them. If I saw a crane, I’d be curious to know what was being built. When the band got more successful, I became interested in buying property myself, but I always liked the idea of building something from scratch,” he says.
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The €20m project sits 11 miles outside the Filans’ home town of Sligo. When complete, the scheme will have 91 semi-detached and detached houses, 45 of which have already been sold off-plan, with prices ranging from €200,000 to €300,000.
As Stonebridge is included in the Upper Shannon tax-designated area, rural renewal tax relief applies for owner-occupiers and investors.
The houses overlook the River Bonnet and were built in conjunction with McInerney homes, which Shane hopes gives his scheme the quality mark that a boy-band member might not achieve on his own.
“McInerney’s involvement was really important — after all, I don’t want to be known as someone who builds bad houses,” he says.
Shane, who was on tour with Westlife while most of the building was taking place, never got his hands dirty, but insists he was heavily involved: “I was a lot more hands-on about it than people probably think. A lot of decisions needed to be made. I had four months off from the band last year and was around Sligo, so I was able to attend meetings with the architects and McInerney on-site. Then Finbarr was constantly in touch by phone when I went back to work.”
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Finbarr adds: “There were some very long hours spent in Shane’s kitchen, going through the details. And when Shane went back on the road, he had to learn to use his e-mail to check the plans. And there were a lot of long-distance phone calls.”
The houses’ interiors were designed by Finbarr’s wife, Geraldine Gilroy, and a family friend. “We didn’t let Shane have a go at the interior design,” laughs Finbarr, “but on the eve of the launch he was busy going around wiping things down with a cloth.”
The next phase of Stonebridge opens in May. Sherry FitzGerald Draper, 071 914 3710