NAMA agree not to sell Westport House estate as planned

Negotiations ongoing with Mayo County Council

Neill O'Neill

THE National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) have agreed to release loans attaching to the historic Westport House estate in County Mayo from its multi-billion Project Arrow portfolio.
The development came last Friday morning, following a week of confidential negotiations and discussions between Mayo County Council and NAMA, facilitated by Westport-based Minister of State, Michael Ring.
Fears had been expressed in the region over the future of the popular stately home and tourist attraction, after it was revealed in recent weeks that Cerberus, who bought NAMAs controversial Northern Ireland loan portfolio, were one of two main bidders for Project Arrow, which contains debt attaching to the estate. Just hours after The Mayo News revealed that Westport House was to be removed from Project Arrow, NAMA confirmed that Cerberus had been successful in their bid for the portfolio - the largest to have been sold by the agency.
 
Public meeting
Last Tuesday, a capacity crowd at a public meeting in Westport Town Hall Theatre vented their disbelief at the developments with the estate that has been in the Browne family for almost 400 years. There were strong calls at that meeting from across the local community that ongoing negotiations between the State, Mayo County Council and NAMA, over the future of Westport House, must not fail.  
People, politicians and many organisation leaders from across the community spoke of their memories of Westport House and called for action to be taken. There were several impassioned pleas in one of the most important and well-attended public meetings in the region for many years, with unanimous support for a campaign to save Westport House from private ownership. There was also much recognition of the work and effort of the Browne Family, particularly the late Jeremy Browne, over the last 55 years, something it is understood the Browne family (who were not in attendance) were very heartened by and thankful for. At one stage the doors of the Town Hall building had to be closed on health and safety grounds, such were the crowds trying to enter.
Now, it has been confirmed that the first step in that process - getting a section of the NAMA Act invoked that would permit the property to be removed from the ‘Project Arrow’ sale for public interest reasons - has been successful.
What the immediate future holds for the iconic 380 acre estate and Browne family remains unknown at this time, but it has been stated that this development buys time for those currently engaged in negotiations to work on a plan, without fear that the Westport House estate could be sold to the highest bidder in the coming months.  
Those involved in what are known to be sensitive negotiations on the matter refused to be drawn on exact details in relation to this latest development, but Minister Ring had the following to say.
“I can confirm that loans linked to lands at Westport House have been withdrawn from the ‘Project Arrow’ loan sale and are the subject of discussions between NAMA and Mayo County Council at present. I was delighted to be able to facilitate the meetings between both of these bodies in recent weeks, and welcome the withdrawal of these lands from ‘Project Arrow’. Going forward, I hope negotiations between NAMA and Mayo County Council will be successful.”
A recently published economic impact report on Westport House revealed that 47 people are employed on the estate, which opened to the public by the late Jeremy Browne in 1960. That report showed that approximately 162,000 people visit the popular family attraction each year, generating in excess of €50 million for the regional economy.