He was once among the country’s most enthusiastic buyers of property. Now Derek Quinlan is one of its most vigorous sellers. The former tax inspector with the Revenue Commissioners, who is attempting to sell multiple properties in Dublin and New York, is quietly seeking to offload a plot of land in Malibu where he planned to build an eco-friendly house next door to The Edge, guitarist with rock group U2.
The owner of Claridge’s and The Berkeley hotel in London had planned to be a neighbour of the U2 guitarist in a 120-acre Malibu retreat that the pair were developing jointly. But last week, Quinlan’s plot of land in Sweetwater Mesa, and three adjoining sites, were listed as available for sale with Pritchett-Rapf & Associates, a Malibu real-estate agent, with a price of $7.5m (€5.6m) each.
Contacted by The Sunday Times last week, the agent confirmed that four of the five plots in the coastal getaway were available.
The duo’s attempts to develop the secluded retreat, 900ft above the Pacific coastline, has drawn criticism from locals, who claimed the plans showed scant regard for the local environment. The Edge, whose real name is David Howell Evans, set up a website, leaves-inthewind.com, to defend the project. His home is designed with a cascade of 19 overlapping roofs intended to resemble bronze leaves being blown along a ridge.
Edge claims that he and Quinlan “have worked diligently to design homes that meet the highest environmental standards; that fit appropriately and aesthetically into this beautiful part of southern California; and that are truly remarkable examples of the best architecture and design”.
The other planned houses in the complex include Blue Clouds, a multi-level home; Panorama, an ocean-front property; Shell House, a curving structure inspired by the ocean; and Clouds Rest, which mimics the mounds of the site.
The musician, who has had a residence in Malibu for more than a decade and whose wife is Californian, paid a little under €10m for the land after finding it in 2004. He and Quinlan appointed Wallace Cunningham, a self-styled eco-friendly architect, to draw up plans for five environmentally sustainable homes on the site.
The pair hope to secure permission for the development in June from the California Coastal Commission.
Despite Pritchett-Rapf & Associates’ confirmation to The Sunday Times that four plots were for sale, a spokesman for the project later denied that the houses were for sale on the open market. Pritchett-Rapf & Associates subsequently said that it had not been authorised to speak to journalists when it made the original comments.
A spokesman for Quinlan declined to comment.
The Edge and Quinlan are also partners in the redevelopment of the five-star Clarence hotel in Dublin, along with Bono and Paddy McKillen, a property developer. The hotel received planning permission last year for a €150m overhaul, but work has yet to commence.
Quinlan, who owns a 50% stake in Jurys Inns, is offloading much of his property portfolio. He is selling a New York townhouse for €28.3m which he bought for €19.8m four years ago. The 13,000 sq ft property is on 20 East 64th Street, where neighbours once included Bernie Madoff, the disgraced banker.
He is selling offices on the same street which he bought for €14m in 2005. The asking price for the 10,000 sq ft building, which came on the market last October for €27.3m, has been reduced to €19.8m.
Quinlan, who paid €1.1 billion to buy the Savoy Hotel group in 2004, has put his former offices at 1 Elgin Road in Dublin 4 up for sale for €7.5m, bought two years ago for €7m.
He was recently granted planning permission to amalgamate numbers 1 and 3 Shrewsbury Road,adjoining houses he bought in 2006 for a reported €27m. As well as linking the houses, he has permission to extend the properties and add a basement, creating a seven-bedroom, 21,000 sq ft mansion.
Quinlan has also hired an art dealer to sell some of his large art collection, which includes works by Sean Scully, Hughie O’Donoghue, Roderic O’Conor and Jack B Yeats, much of it bought at the top of the Irish art boom early in the decade.
“It is well known that he was badly advised and treated in his art dealings throughout the boom,” an art world source said last week. “He has offered a part of his collection for sale over the past few months. Some of these pictures were bought at public auctions for large prices, and the reality is that in the current market they can only be sold at a loss.”
Additional reporting: John Burns
ng A, these guys are way outta control. I can't seem to stand any of them.
I believe in Edge! 
is doing with all that property and all of those homes-maybe making his own retirement community for U2 so they can all live together until they die, and then their kids can, and so on and so on.
you!
Way to plan for the future, Edge! 
