Luke and Brian Comer | |
---|---|
Nationality | Irish |
Occupation | Property developers |
Known for | Founders and owners of the Comer Group |
Luke and Brian Comer are Irish billionaire property developers and the founders and owners of the Comer Group, a privately owned UK property development company.
The Comer brothers come from Glenamaddy, County Galway, in Ireland. [1] [2] Luke is the older brother, born in November 1957; Brian was born in January 1960. [3]
The brothers left school in their early teens to work as plasterers. [1] They moved to London in 1984, working first as plasterers and then moving into property development. [4] [1] Since then their focus has shifted to Germany and then to Ireland in 2010, in their quest for value for money. [1]
The brothers' projects include the conversion of the listed Friern Hospital (formerly Colney Hatch Asylum) to residential accommodation in the mid-1990s as Princess Park Manor. [5]
The Comers invested more than €75 million in property purchases in Ireland, the UK, and Germany in a six-month period (November 2015-April 2016) and reported plans to invest an additional €200 million in the 18 months to follow. [6] In 2017, two farmers in Ireland filed suit against the brothers over land rights to five acres of grazing territory in north county Dublin. [7]
In 2018, the Comers purchased Kilmartin House, a 111-acre piece of land in Dublin 15 to be used for a residential development. [8] In May 2018 it was reported that the Beckett Building, which was purchased by the Comer Brothers in 2013 for roughly €5 million, was sold to Kookmin Bank for €101 million. [9]
According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2023, the brothers had a net worth of £913 million. [10]
Since 2013 the brothers have sponsored Galway United and invested several million in the club. In March 2022 the Galway United Friends Co-operative Society voted to allow a bid by the Comer Group to become the majority owners of the club. [11]
Luke Comer, who is resident in Monaco for tax purposes, breeds and trains race horses in Ireland. [2] [12] In September 2023 his trainer's licence was suspended for three years after twelve of his horses tested positive for anabolic steroids. He was fined €60,000 for the positive tests and an additional €5,000 for having incorrectly told the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) that he had an unblemished record. He was also ordered to pay 80% of the IHRB's legal costs, amounting to a bill of around £644,000. [13] In June 2024, he lost an appeal against the suspension. [14]
In September 2023, Greenwich Council ordered the demolition of the Comer Group project Mast Quay Phase II in the Woolwich Dockyard area of southeast London, after 26 major deviations from the planning permission granted in 2012 were highlighted. Apartments marketed as having disabled access were found to have steps to the outdoor space; there were missing roof gardens; a garden area had become a carpark after the planned underground parking was never built; a child's play area was missing. [15] The council issued the following statement: "The council believes that the only reasonable and proportionate way to rectify the harm created by the finished Mast Quay Phase II development to the local area, and the tenants living there, because of the changes made during its construction, is the complete demolition and the restoration of the land to its former condition." [15]
There are 204 flats in the affected blocks, all marketed for rent. At the time of the enforcement notice the Council believed that 78 were occupied. [16]
Rail transport in Ireland is provided by Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland and by Northern Ireland Railways in Northern Ireland.
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media conglomerate, the owner of the Daily Mail and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chair and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, London. In January 2022, DMGT delisted from the London Stock Exchange following a successful offer for DMGT by Rothermere Continuation Limited.
Thomas Anthony Ryan was an Irish billionaire businessman and philanthropist who co-founded Ryanair in 1984 along with cofounders Christopher Ryan and Liam Lonergan, 9 years after founding Guinness Peat Aviation an international aircraft leasing industry. Through Guinness Peat Aviation and Ryanair, he amassed two fortunes by identifying gaps in the market. Ryanair was believed to be the main source of his wealth in later life: the company became one of the biggest airlines in Europe and was worth approximately $13 billion at the time of his death.
Ballinasloe is a town in the easternmost part of County Galway in Connacht. Located at an ancient crossing point on the River Suck, evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of Bronze Age sites. Built around a 12th-century castle, which defended the fording point, the modern town of Ballinasloe was "founded" in the early 13th century. As of the 2016 census, it was one of the largest towns in County Galway, with a population of 6,662 people.
Waterford Airport is located in Killowen, 4 NM southeast of Waterford. It serves southeastern Ireland. The airport is operated by Waterford Regional Airport plc.
Glenamaddy, or Glennamaddy, is a small town in County Galway, Ireland. It lies at the crossroads where the R362 and R364 regional roads meet. Glenamaddy became a musical focal point in Connacht during the 1960s during the showband era.
Smithfield is an area on the Northside of Dublin. Its focal point is a public square, formerly an open market and common, now officially called Smithfield Plaza, but known locally as Smithfield Square or Smithfield Market. Historically, Smithfield formed the western part of Oxmantown and lay close to Oxmantown Green.
The Drumaville Consortium was a group of seven Irish businessmen and one English businessman led by former footballer Niall Quinn, who were involved in the 2006 takeover of English Premier League football club Sunderland A.F.C. The consortium was named after the village of Drumaville in County Donegal.
Galway railway station is a railway station which serves the city of Galway in County Galway. The station itself is located in the centre of the city in Eyre Square.
Shrewsbury Road is a street in Dublin, Ireland, and was the sixth-most-expensive street in the world in 2007, ahead of more well-known streets such as the Via Suvretta in St. Moritz and Carolwood Drive in Beverly Hills. Located in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, the street is bordered to the north by Merrion Road and to the south by Ailesbury Road.
InterCity is the brand name given to rail services operated by Iarnród Éireann that run between Dublin and other major cities in Ireland. InterCity branding is also used in other European countries by unaffiliated organizations.
Seán Dunne is an Irish businessman and property developer. He is sometimes referred to as "Baron of Ballsbridge" because of his ambitious development project for the Jury's/Berkeley Court hotels site in Ballsbridge. He left Dublin for the United States after the property collapse of 2007 to 2011. He was born in County Carlow, Ireland.
The Cosgrave Property Group is an Irish property development company established by brothers Joseph, Michael, and Peter Cosgrave. It currently has loans from the National Asset Management Agency.
Sean Mulryan is an Irish property developer, and the founder and chairman and CEO of the Ballymore Group, a Dublin-based international property development company. He was named on the Estates Gazette 2017 'Power List', which lists the 50 most powerful individuals in Britain's commercial real estate sector. Mulryan was the only Irish person to be named on the list, which included US billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the chairman of CC Land, Cheung Chung-kiu.
Galway United Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Galway. They play in the League of Ireland Premier Division following promotion from the First Division in 2023. They were founded as Galway Rovers F.C. during the 1930s. They made their League of Ireland debut in 1977–78 and changed their name to Galway United in 1981–82. After suffering financial difficulties, the club dropped out of the League of Ireland after the 2011 season but in 2014 Galway United returned initially playing as Galway F.C. for a season. Like other sports teams from the county, Galway United are nicknamed "The Tribesmen", after the 14 "tribes" of Galway, the merchant families that established the city.
Comer Group is an international property development firm established by brothers Luke and Brian Comer. The company has its headquarters in London, and is mainly active in the UK and Ireland.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) is the regulatory body for the sport of horse racing in Ireland. The body, which is a limited company, took over the regulatory work previously carried out by the Turf Club and the Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee (INHSC) on 1 January 2018.
Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats in Cork and Dublin such as Grangegorman, the Barricade Inn, the Bolt Hostel, Connolly Barracks, That Social Centre and James Connolly House.
Mohsin Issa CBE and Zuber Issa CBE are British-Indian billionaire brothers and businessmen who founded Euro Garages in 2001, a Blackburn-based operator of filling stations, convenience stores and food service providers across Europe, the United States and Australia. In 2020, as part of a consortium with TDR Capital, the brothers became majority stakeholders in the British supermarket chain Asda.