Kerry community meeting a brick wall as they try to buy an historic building

MEMBERS of the local development company of a Kerry village say they are coming up against a brick wall in trying to establish the ownership of an historic building they are hoping to buy for local use.

Ballylongford Enterprise Association members Michael Finucane, Noel Lynch and Michael Foley (a Fine Gael county councillor) have been chasing a paper trail in recent months in an effort to find out who owns the Bambury Stores building on Quay Street.

Built in 1835 by a grain merchant firm, it later served as the local soup kitchen and workhouse during the Famine and later still became Bambury’s Stores, which it is still referred to as locally.

It sits on Quay Street, immediately north of the ‘crooked’ crossroad at the centre of the historic village.

Much of Quay Street, where many of the 45 derelict buildings in this small village are located, lies in a state of dilapidation today.

Now, the community – through its representative Enterprise Association – is hoping to acquire Bambury Stores with a view to converting it into a bright new space for community use.

“The whole street is a bit of a disaster and gives a bad impression of Ballylongford, but we could transform it,” Fine Gael Cllr Mike Foley told The Kerryman in Ballylongford last week.

“If we could buy Bambury Stores it would be fantastic as we’re in a position where we could get funding to turn it into an interpretive centre, possibly incorporate a men’s shed or a youth café. There are numerous options, but without ownership we haven’t a hope of getting funding,” Cllr Foley said.

Bambury Stores was originally part of a complex of local buildings bought in 2004 by Mill Developments Ltd amid plans for a residential area including an apartment block and individual houses.

It wasn’t to be, with the company going into liquidation following the financial crash.

But the Mill development would come on the market again, 16 years later – albeit minus two sites.

In August 2020, four sites within Mill Development Ltd’s former holding went up for public auction on the digital property marketplace BidX1.

Notably, Bambury Stores and the old Collins Public House were not put up for sale.

Research by the Association members shows that neither of these two properties has a folio number under the Land Registry.

That’s when the men went digging: “We had a meeting in the Parish Hall at which the prospect of buying Bambury Stores was discussed. It is in pretty good condition and it was felt we should look at buying it and approach the banks with that in mind...I was asked to investigate,” Cllr Foley explained.

He said that he immediately contacted AIB: “But I was getting nowhere. Fair play to Michael Finucane, though he knew someone and we were able to find out that AIB had sold the whole loan onto a company called Link Financial.”

Cllr Foley duly spoke with someone within Link Financial, telling him the company was interested in purchasing the building and asking him to investigate the matter.

“He said he would and he came back to me to inform me it had passed on to a company called BCM Global, it’s like a holding company,” Cllr Foley said.

BCM Global is the banking and credit-management subdivision of the Link Group.

A representative informed Cllr Foley he would look into the matter and query AIB on the original loan.

Unfortunately, he was unable to provide Cllr Foley with any clarity when the Ballylongford politician followed up with him on it.

He said the whole process has left him with the impression that the financial system simply doesn’t care enough to find out if it even owns an entire building in the sleepy North Kerry community.

“I think it’s disgraceful that the banks can’t tell us who owns or holds Bambury Stores, and it leaves us in a bad position unable to do anything to brighten that side of the village, to make an attraction of the building,” Cllr Foley said.

“Did AIB know what it was passing on or did it only send on the properties with the folio numbers?...We have so many questions about it and it feels now we’re being blocked from developing this part of our village by the banks,” he added.

The Kerryman has queried both BCM Global and AIB on the matter. AIB informed The Kerryman that it was a matter for BCM Global. But as of time of press the paper had not received any response from BCM.