Businessman Barry English has emerged as the main backer of the new owners of the former City Arts Centre in Dublin.
Pointsight, an investment company set up by English in 2019, has agreed to lend KC Capital €7 million to fund its investment in the property and will also put equity into Ventaway, a special purpose vehicle set up for the purchase.
KC Capital Property Group is thought to have beat off competition from big hitters such as Johnny Ronan’s Ronan Group and Simon Kelly’s RQTwo to buy the former City Arts Centre for €40 million.
The half-acre site, which is located on City Quay in the Dublin docklands, has been vacant for 18 years. It was considered one of the capital’s leading cultural spaces between 1988 and 2003 but lay empty after it was bought by a consortium of developers in 2003.
A recent feasibility study for the site found it would be suited to a 145,000 sq ft office development.
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KC Capital, which is headed up by developer David Kennan, is currently building the Greenside Building, a 37,000 sq ft office development on Cuffe Street in Dublin. It bought the property for €4 million in an off-market deal in 2019.
Pointsight has also a charge registered against this property.
English heads up Winthrop, a large Dublin engineering group that is one of the leading contractors in the construction of data centres in Ireland and abroad. Its clients include Amazon and Google.