The property company that has developed Clerys Quarter on Dublin's O'Connell Street recorded pre-tax losses of €18.95m in 2023.
New accounts filed by OCES Property Holdings Ltd show that the loss arose chiefly from the company recording a non-cash impairment of €15.38m on its property along with interest payments of €9.86m.
The directors state that the asset will be sold following full occupation.
Last year, international brands H&M and Decathlon opened outlets at Clerys Quarter.
Pre-opening, OCES Property Holdings Ltd recorded rental revenues of €169,157 from November 1st 2023 to year end and those rental revenues will have risen exponentially for 2024.
The pre-tax loss of €18.95m is a seven fold increase on the pre-tax losses of €2.7m in 2022 when no impairment charge was incurred.
The company generated "other operating income" of €7.96m in 2023 which was made up of the gain on property sales with a gain of €7.2m relating to the sale of Block B and €750,000 in relation to the sale of Block C.
The directors state that they consider the result for the year and the year end position to be satisfactory.
GreenOak has provided external financing totalling €61m to OCES Property to finance the company's venture.
In a post balance sheet, the directors disclose that on December 9 2024, a 12 month extension to the GreenOak facility was approved in return for a €6.5m loan pre-payment to be made by way of a share cap equity injection and depositing 12 months interest and extension fees with GreenOak upfront to be funded by way of a share cap equity injection.
Paddy McKillen Jnr's Oakmount is a small shareholder in the venture that is being driven by a division of New York-based real-estate firm Rockefeller Group - Europa Capital, and another local partner, Derek McGrath's Core Capital.
The parties purchased the site for a sum understood to be in the region of €63m in 2018.
The new accounts put a book value of €59.3m on the property being developed at the end of 2023.
This took into account €19.13m from the disposal of Block B and the €15.38m impairment.
A note states that the stock was valued at the end of December 2023 which took into account applicable yield rates, rental and recent market transactions.
On the risks facing the business, the directors state that the company faces strong competition in the market and rising construction costs.
OCES Property Holdings Ltd had a shareholders' deficit of €49.68m at the end of 2023 made up of accumulated losses of €79m offset by share capital of €29.3m.
The opening of Clerys Quarter came nine years after the 170-year-old department store was closed suddenly in June 2015 with the loss of more than 460 jobs, shortly after it was bought for €29m by the Natrium consortium headed by businesswoman Deirdre Foley.
A spokeswoman for Clerys Quarter said: "Our multi-year plan to create Clerys Quarter around the restoration of the iconic Clery’s department store continues to progress well. Operationally, we have been pleased to announce a number of recent successes".
"In 2024 we fully let up the entirety of the retail space, with both H&M and Decathlon opening their stores during the year. These leading brands joined Pret A Manger and on-the-go sushi brand, ROLLED," she said.
"A third of the office space was also sold to the Health Service Executive on behalf of the Rotunda Hospital, for a new maternity outpatient hospital catering for over 100,000 outpatients annually. We are now focused on leasing up the remainder of the Grade A office space on site and completing the project," she added.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
