A BUSINESSMAN WHO co-owns a strategic land bank at Dublin Airport has said that he is in talks with international venture funds who want to build a “private terminal”, as he claims the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) made only a “derisory offer”. 

Ulick McEvaddy told RTÉ’s This Week radion programme that he is prepared to go to court to ensure that a private owner could build a terminal, and have access to Dublin Airport’s runways. 

McEvaddy denied that he is holding the land “to ransom” against the DAA, but acknowledged that a private owner may eventually sell the land on to the state-owned company, as he believes it will ultimately become “desperate”. 

He added that he was not after “crazy prices” for the land, and that primarily, he wanted the land to be used for the expansion of Dublin Airport, but that an offer from the DAA that was the same as the one they made “20 years ago” isn’t acceptable. 

McEvaddy confirmed that the DAA had made an offer of €75 million, and said that he didn’t expect another offer from them. 

He said that three venture funds are ahead of the Comer Brothers, out of the five bidders who are currently expressing an interest in the land. 

McEvaddy said that a deal should be done on the land “probably by the end of the year”.  

Kenny Jacobs, the Chief Executive of the DAA also spoke on This Week. He told the programme that in his view, McEvaddy’s land is not strategic for Dublin Airport. 

He said that this piece of land “wouldn’t make the top 20″ list of strategic infrastructure projects being pursued by Dublin Airport. 

“This piece of land will never be used to build a third terminal,” he said, adding that the DAA would most likely use it to build some taxiways. 

Jacobs added that the DAA has commissioned two independent evaluations of the land, and that he himself has visited the site multiple times. 

He added that the McEvaddys are looking for a price of €200 million. 

“Good luck to them,” Jacobs said. 

He added that the DAA does not intend to make another offer on the land. 

Responding to McEvaddy’s claim that multiple international investment funds are interested in building a private terminal on the land, Jacobs said that, seeing as the land is in the middle of the airport’s two runways, a fund seeking to build a terminal would have called the DAA by now. 

“No one has called us,” he added. 

Jacobs added that he believes that any court case that would determine whether the owner of a private terminal would gain access to Dublin Airport’s runway is “years away”. 

Asked whether the DAA may end up regretting not buying the land now if it ends up ultimately buying it from another owner down the line, Jacobs said “we don’t think we’ll be coming back looking for it to expand’.