Paddy McKillen firm behind luxury Dublin apartment block records €5.5m ‘loan forgiveness’

Paddy McKillen and Padraig Drayne’s firm, which developed a luxury Dublin city centre apartment block, in which homes sold for up to €1.8 million, booked a €5.5 million gain from “loan forgiveness” last year.Broadfield Development Limited, controlled by McKillen and Drayne, secured permission to build the mixed-use commercial and residential development called 55 Lad Lane in 2017. Construction work started on the six-storey, 25-unit apartment block in 2019. Apartments have been sold individually in the development over the past two years, with the final home in the block sold earlier this month.New accounts published by the company show it recorded a “provision for loan forgiveness” of almost €5.5 million last year. That helped drive a profit after tax of close to €3.9 million.READ MOREThe final tranche of apartments in 55 Lad Lane were sold this year. Based on the Property Price Register, one-, two- and three-bed homes were sold at prices ranging between €550,000 and €1.8 million.Broadfield Development Limited made €12.9 million of turnover from the sale of the apartments last year, compared to €9.2 million in 2024. Broadfield said its cost of sales in the year totalled €16.9 million in 2025. Allowing for €504,000 of interest charges on debts, the company recorded an operating loss of close to €4.6 million. But the business swung from that operating loss to an after-tax profit due largely to the loan forgiveness. It also earned €310,000 in dividends and booked a positive €1 million item described as an “impact of wind-up cost”. At year end it was still sitting on accumulated losses of €9 million.Sales materials for the apartment project said the project was financed by AIB. Financial statements showed finance was also provided personally by McKillen and a firm linked to Drayne. The company’s accounts did not clarify if the loan forgiveness was linked to Broadfield Development’s debts with AIB or other finance provided.A spokesman for AIB said it does not comment on individual customers. A spokeswoman for McKillen did not respond to a request for comment. Irish property developer Paddy McKillen. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire Filings by Broadfield Development Limited in August of this year said that five charges held by AIB over the company had been fully satisfied. In the latest accounts, directors said the company has an intercompany loan from JSC Properties (Holdings) Limited, the McKillen and Drayne firm that sold Jervis Shopping Centre earlier this year, totalling €8.4 million that fell due at the end of 2025.In addition to that sum, Broadfield also owed €4.2 million to McKillen, €2.25 million to an entity called Garvagh Finance and €1.9 million to Drayne’s firm, Deanscastle Developments. It also owed €659,000 in VAT and to other creditors.Broadfield Development Limited disclosed back in its 2022 financial accounts that €16.2 million in loan facilities with AIB had expired in September of that year. Directors were in discussions with the bankers about repayment of the debt facilities from the proceeds of property sales, it said. Last year, McKillen and Drayne’s firm said the amount outstanding to AIB had fallen to €8.5 million by the end of 2024 and they remained in discussions with the bank. The filing added that a further €4.2 million had been repaid from apartment sale proceeds in 2025.In August 2026, filings by Broadfield Development Limited said all charges AIB held over the company were now fully satisfied. A note in the accounts said the company has “no plans to carry out any further development” and its directors were planning to wind up the firm.