Marketplace Clonmel, was sold to an unknown telephone bidder on Manday 3rd of December, 2012, for a fee of €920,000. The bidder was later revealed to be a company called "Remcoll Ltd" which was incorporated in August 2012.
The sale of Market Place in Clonmel, is an entire street comprising of 21 units and buildings,
It lay derelict for over a decade, until in Janurary 2023, the news broke that the Tipperary council would designate the site on the derelict sites register, meaning the owners would be fined on a continual basis until they came up with a resolution to the site.
In April 2024, Remcoll lodged planning permission with the council for a change of use of ground and first floor levels to administration/office use together with the addition of a new second floor, Other proposals include the construction of a new entrance to the development, the addition of Solar PV panels and the allocation of 60 car parking spaces and 22 cycle spaces.
Planning was given the green light on the site on August 5th, and now work has begun.
NIALL COLLINS, Director. - ; MELANIE MCGARRY, Director. - ; PAUL COLLINS, Director. - ; PAUL COLLINS, Company Secretary. -.
While i was researching for this report it became very clear, very quickly that there are alot of steps taken by owners and compaines to hide who the true owners / directors / beneficiaries are.
I have done my best to untangle this web of the myriad of companies and investment companies who are named as shareholders.
From what i can see there are a total of SEVEN remcoll companies, ive decided to list them and their major shareholders in an effort to make it as easy as possible to understand.
1. REMCOLL LTD - Paul Collins 50% & Melanie McGarry. 50%
2. REMCOLL TRADING LTD - Paul Collins 50% & Melanie McGarry 50%
3.REMCOLL 2 LTD - 4 SHAREHOLDERS - ALEX & ISLA JEFFERS, 25% - ARBORTREE HOLDINGS LIMITED 25% - NOELLE CONWAY 25% - DEARTHAIR HOLDINGS LIMITED 25%.
4. REMCOLL 3 LTD - ARBORTREE HOLDINGS LIMITED 50% - DEARTHAIR HOLDINGS LIMITED 50%
5. REMCOLL CAPITAL LTD - ARBORTREE HOLDINGS LIMITED 50% - DEARTHAIR HOLDINGS LIMITED 50%
6. REMCOLL DEVELOPMENTS LTD - REMCOLL CAPITAL LTD 100%
7. REMCOLL MODULAR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS LTD 50% Paul Collins LMC GROUP (FORMERLY LMC MODULAR)
So as you can see, there are a number of companies and shareholders, most of which are the same people, for example the majority of the Remcoll group of companies are controlled / owned by Paul Collins, Melanie McGarry.
However lets now look into the other companies involved and their share holders,.
1. ARBORTREE HOLDINGS LIMITED - Melanie McGarry 50% & Peter McGarry 50%
2. DEARTHAIR HOLDINGS LIMITED - Christopher Collins 50% & Niall Collins 50%
3. LMC GROUP LTD - Martin Lydon 50% Stephen McConnell 50%
I hope this helps you, the reader, to understand the full extent of the scale of Remcoll and its various branches. but it doesn't stop there, lets start with Paul Collins, Collins is listed as director of Townbe Unlimited with Tanya Hennigan. Townbe Unlimited is 100% owned by Townbe Holdings Unlimited. Townbe Holdings Unlimited was incorporated in 2019. It is jointly owned by Brightpearl Unlimited and Premierbrook Unlimited, each with a 40% shareholding, and by Tanya Hennigan who has a 20% share. When an IPAS inspection was conducted at the Temple Hotel at Horseleap, Westmeath, on December 22, 2020 Hennigan was listed as proprietor and manager and Collins was notified of the results of the inspection, which had found just minor defects.
Brightpearl is 98.04% owned by Melanie McGarry and Peter McGarry with minor equal shares held by Arbortree and Havalina. According to company records, the McGarrys appear to be resident in Switzerland, happily away from the rough and tumble of making a few bob taking in guests from overseas at a disused paint factory in Coolock.
Melanie McGarry and Paul Collins were listed as the directors of a company called Combin which bought the Abbeyfield Hotel and an estate of 52 houses in Ballaghaderreen in 2015. The Abbeyfield Hotel was at the Centre of controversy later when the hotel was used to accommodate asylum seekers. Combin was registered in Bermuda care of another company called Remcoll. Remcoll has an Irish address and is owned by Paul Collins and Melanie McGarry. Its activities are the “management activities of holding companies.” The company has also been involved in nursing homes including one at Carnew, County Wicklow.
As i have stated above, That is one of the reasons why tracing the ultimate beneficiaries of the asylum business is so difficult.
Premierbrook, the other main owner of Townbe along with the McGarrys, is owned by Christopher Collins and Niall Collins and one of the directors is Paul Collins. All of the Collins have an address at Bandon, County Cork.
Those then are the owners of Townbe, but how have Townbe themselves done in the cutting edge dynamic sector that is the turning of paint factories, hotels, nursing homes and what not into guest houses for lads fleeing north London, north Paris and further afield?
Well, as followers of the fortunes of the Gilded Youth of the refugee accommodation sector will know, the answer to that is not too badly at all. Since the beginning of 2021, and as we have seen the involvement of the principals concerned predates 2021, Townbe Unlimited has drawn down more than €38 million from the taxpayer for providing asylum services.
Like many others turning a bob from this hugely profitable sector the owners of Townbe can look upon their work from afar. Not unlike the Regency beaux who could season all year around in London while the peasants down the bog picked up their tabs.
In my opinion, due to investors, and how they're all connected, Townbe is Remcoll, Arbortree holdings, Dearthair holdings, Premierbrook, Combin, Brightpearl, & Havalina.
The main players being Paul Collins, Melanie McGarry, Peter McGarry, Niall Collins, & Christopher Colins.
This is the entity that is now in the early stages of work on Marketplace Clonmel, where they have applied for permission for a change of use of ground and first floor levels to administration/office use together with the addition of a new second floor
Other proposals include the construction of a new entrance to the development, the addition of Solar PV panels and the allocation of 60 car parking spaces and 22 cycle spaces. However does Clonmel actually need anymore office spaces? a quick look on property websites throws up 25 office spaces available to rent / buy, not to mention the many more that are not listed but are available in the likes of the FBD building in the Gortnafluer business park.
We should also be mindful of another almost identical development Remcoll completed in the rock quarter in Lietrim, which you can view here. and you can then read how they wished to change some of that development here and while i am not suggesting for a moment this will be the same for their plans in marketplace Clonmel, it is worth noting how Remcoll makes its money, and what its history is around the accommodation sector as listed above.
It is also worth mentioning that Remcoll have plans for this old bank building in tipperary town
Some might say that this recycling of previously productive locations into asylum centers is just entrepreneurial capitalism – it is not. That was what Crown Paints used to do. Crown Paints employed people, it made stuff people wanted, and then it sold that stuff to the public.
CREDITS - Gript Media - Leitrim Observer
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