Site Ownership

Update: In early 2017 (March?) the PG Group exchanged contracts for the purchase of the site from Opecprime.  It is expected that the purchase will be completed in October 2017.

Ownership (as of November 2016)

The information below was all obtained from the Land Registry and Companies House.

The Westmoreland House / Carriageworks site (title number AV98683) is owned by Opecprime Properties Ltd, which is registered in England No. 1972217.

Opecprime

The Directors of Opecprime are Luke Comer, Martin Comer and Thomas Donnellan.

The last published accounts (date June 2015) show the company having assets of £86m and creditors of £75m.

The company has £1000 of ordinary shares which are owned by the Directors.

The company also has £54.5m of preference shares (allotted in March 2013) which are owned by Brookstream Properties Ltd (Directors are the Comers, shares owned by the Comers and Donnellan) and Ridgeland Properties Ltd (Directors are the Comers, shares owned by Granville Investments Ltd).

The 2012 accounts show a web of companies owing (£33m) and owed (£37m) money to and by Opecprime. Luke Comer is identified as the ultimate controlling party for all these companies. The allotment of the preference shares in 2015 seems to have resolved this mass of creditors and debtors.

Mortgage

On 8 October 2009 Westmoreland House was used as security for a mortgage from the Bank of Ireland. The mortgage includes reference to development facility borrowers (Chantstream Ltd, Rossmark Properties Ltd and Carlson Properties Ltd all three of which had the Comers as Directors and were dissolved in 2014), an acquisition facility borrower (Coral Bay Holdings Ltd, registered in Guernsey) and other chargors (including Project Development Consultants Ltd, Interco Services Ltd and Charter Trust Co Ltd). The accounts for 2009/10 do not specifically identify the mortgage or its amount. The mortgage is shown on the Companies House website as outstanding.

In June 2015 Opecprime agreed a loan of £7m owing to the London branch of Bank J Safra Sarasin (Gibraltar) Ltd. This is secured against seven properties in London.

Published 16 Nov 2016.
Updated 7 Sept 2017