Republic of Ireland Development Conference

Ballymore – David Killion, Development Director

Diageo picked Ballymore to develop part of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin as a new urban centre. Guinness’s parent, Diageo are redeveloping 12 acres of its complex at St James’s Gate in central Dublin for housing, offices, shops and businesses with the intention of it becoming Dublin’s first “zero carbon district”. David will join the conference to give more intel on the next phases of this €700 million investment as well as looking ahead to Ballymore’s future development schemes in Ireland.

Clare County Council – Carmel Kirby, Director of Services

The Ennis Town Centre Public Realm Regeneration Project comes as a part of the Government’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, which is intended to drive the rejuvenation of strategic and underutilised areas within Ireland’s cities and towns. Under the town centre regeneration scheme, there will be a significant upgrade to the public realm with over €5m worth of works set to take place over several key areas throughout the town centre. Carmel joins us to share insight into the project and offer thought leadership on further public realm improvements planned for the future.

Greystar Ireland – Ward Frisby, Development Director

Greystar is a leading, fully integrated real estate company that manages and operates over $200 billion+ of real estate globally. In 2019, Greystar completed the acquisition of the Quayside Quarter development at Dublin Landings for €176 million, adding 268 apartments on Dublin’s North Wall Quay to their portfolio. Recently the property giant has closed in on a deal worth just under €180 million for 342 homes being developed by Cairn Homes for the Griffith Wood portfolio.

Ireland Strategic Investment Fund – Sarah Hickey, Senior Investment Manager

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), managed and controlled by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), is a sovereign development fund with a unique mandate. The ISIF is comprised of the Discretionary Portfolio (€8 billion at end-September 2020) and the Directed Portfolio (€2.2 billion at end-September 2020). The Discretionary Portfolio has a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. Its predecessor was the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). The Directed Portfolio (primarily public policy investments in AIB and Bank of Ireland) continues to be held within the ISIF, under direction from the Minister for Finance.

Fingal County Council – Robert Burns, Director of Housing and Community Development

As Director of Service and part of the senior management team within Fingal County Council with responsibility for Housing and Community Development, Robert is responsible for the delivery of new housing which the council has committed €390m for a significant programme with 3,640 new homes in the pipeline to be developed between 2022 and 2026. Robert also heads up the management of an existing stock of c. 6,000 housing units and will join the conference to reveal more details about their exciting housing development plans over the coming years.

Kilkenny County Council – Colette Byrne, Chief Executive

Kilkenny County Council are undergoing major regeneration and development over the coming years. Working in the Abbey Quarter Partnership, in a joint venture with the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the council will help deliver a major regeneration project at the 10-acre Smithwick’s Brewery site. The site will feature 14 blocks to create a new urban quarter that will consist of 645,000 sq ft of mixed use residential, commercial, retail, education, and civic space.

Fortwell Capital – Arthur Jennings, Managing Director

Fortwell Capital has launched a €300m (£257m) push into Ireland with a €21m construction loan to Red Rock Developments. The deal with Red Rock kickstarts Fortwell’s lending in Ireland, where it is aiming to emulate its growth in the UK debt sector. Arthur will discuss Fortwell’s plans for Ireland and the potential they see in the country for inclusive economic growth.

Clúid Housing – Fiona Cormican, New Business Director

Clúid Housing is an award winning, not-for-profit, that has grown to become the largest approved housing body (AHB) in Ireland, providing over 8,000 affordable, high-quality homes to people in need of housing. The housing body have an ambitious growth strategy to deliver an additional 3,000 homes by the end of 2022. Clúid recently entered into a financing agreement with Legal and General providing a long-term €54 million, becoming the first AHB to secure a financing agreement of this size with an international institutional asset manager. Under the agreement Clúid are to deliver 200 new social homes.

Land Development Agency – Phelim O’Neill, Head of Property

The Land Development Agency is a commercial, state sponsored body that has been created to coordinate land within State control for more optimal uses where appropriate, with a focus on the provision of housing. With over €1.25 billion of capital earmarked by the government for the LDA, there are multiple projects in the pipeline. As head of property at Land Development Agency, Phelim is best placed to share insight into their schemes which make up some of Ireland’s largest social and affordable housing projects.

The Housing Agency – Jim Baneham, Director of Delivery

The Housing Agency are working towards delivering sustainable and affordable housing for all in Ireland. Using their knowledge and expertise, they lead the way in informing and delivering housing policy with their unique position to understand the needs of the Irish housing sector. Through their active engagement, they support all housing related issues in the country. The Housing Agency is responsible for the management of over 80 sites and as Director of Delivery, Jim will be well placed to discuss their development and strategic plan for their sites as well as discussing Ireland’s housing needs as they come out of the pandemic.

Built Environment Networking – Amanda Griffiths, Director

Amanda is one of the Co-Founder’s of Built Environment Networking – formed almost 10 years ago.

She’ll be hosting throughout the day, running the days proceedings and managing the interaction between our delegates and the speakers.

Meath County Council – Padraig Maguire, Senior Planner

Meath County Council are looking to redevelop Navan’s Flower Hill following a €7.66 million grant under the government’s urban regeneration fund. Under the regeneration plan, the council will complete a reconstruction of the streetscape, a new community and cultural facility, an upgrade of frontage on existing buildings and an exciting riverbank project that will link Blackwater Park to the bottom of Flower Hill.

Tetrarch Homes – Tom Sheridan, Development Director

Tetrarch secured private equity backing for plans to build 1,500 homes last year with London-based Revcap backing the €500 million venture by the Irish group. Tetrarch has a strong focus on senior living accommodation in the plans that include social, affordable and private housing in a number of schemes in the greater Dublin area. Tom joined Tetrarch in 2019 and is responsible for the development and delivery of all development projects across their portfolio and will be well placed to discuss their plans for the coming years.

Built Environment Networking – Fahmida Nisa, Host & Event Manager

Nisa is a research, marketing and content specialist at Built Environment Networking. She will be hosting a number of the sessions throughout the day, running the day’s proceedings and managing the interaction between our virtual delegates and the speakers.

Cundall – Alan Fogarty, Head of Sustainability

Alan heads up a specialist environmental team in Cundall which he started in 1999. The team is focused on low-energy and sustainable building design.He is a chartered building services engineer and has gained an extensive knowledge of natural ventilation design, passive design techniques and the assessment of natural lighting. He is specialised in developing energy strategies including the development of low carbon district heating for both new and existing sites.He is an accredited BREEAM Assessor, AP & SKA assessor. He is part of the CIBSE Part L working group reviewing Part L 2016 non-domestic buildings for DCLG. He developed the EFA PSBP baseline designs for natural ventilation and energy requirements.He is keenly interested in Biophilia and in particular how plants can improve air quality inside buildings and the resulting reduction in ventilation energy that can be achieved. Alan regularly is a guest speaker at Brunel and Loughborough Universities as well as a provider of CPD seminars for RIBA.

PrepayPower – Tracy Tuffin, Residential Business Sales Manager

PrepayPower is Irelands leading smart metering utility supplier with over 240,00 meter points across Ireland (electricity, gas and broadband). We support our clients sustainability commitments by providing 100% guaranteed renewable energy, sourced directly by PrepayPower from Irish windfarms. We use data from our smart meters to understand the performance of our clients buildings and support their residents to reduce waste through smart technology. We support community renewable projects such as CHP, PV and solar.  We have the highest retention rates in the utility market at 90%,  providing price stability and security through our comprehensive hedging strategy.

Our smart technology underpins our clients commitments to reduce their carbon footprint whilst creating inclusive, vibrant, smarter communities in Ireland.