Bristol finance along with legal and property expertise from the city has enabled expansion of a luxury holiday resort in Cornwall to go ahead.
The Bristol commercial team of the Allied Irish Bank (GB) granted a multi million pound facility to Kingfisher Resorts St Ives to fund the development of the luxury Una St Ives holiday resort, pictured, on Cornwall’s north coast.
It will form part of the Carbis Bay resort, which already has around 30 high-end and eco-friendly holiday homes as well as a leisure complex including restaurants, bars, a gym, pool and spa. 
The phase II and III expansion by Truro-based Kingfisher will take place over the next two to three years.
Allied Irish Bank was supported by the Bristol offices of regional law firm Thrings and national property consultancy Sanderson Weatherall.
Allied Irish Bank specialises providing a range of loans and financial services to owner-managed businesses. The Kingfisher loan will enable it to acquire two sister companies from real estate fund manager Frogmore which together own the site.
The team at Thrings, led by Bristol-based corporate partner Mike Tomlin, prepared and implemented the investment security package for AIB.
Additional legal advice was provided by the firm’s specialist corporate affairs, banking, property, construction and planning teams.
Allied Irish Bank (GB) Bristol senior relationship manager Brian Tooker said: “We were approached to fund the deal at the Bristol business office. My colleague Kevin Goodall and I were able to meet the clients at the site shortly afterwards and we quickly delivered confirmation of the bank’s appetite to fund the proposal.
“It became very clear to us that they would run an established business and it is great that we have been given the opportunity to play a small part in their success. We worked very closely with the client and local professionals, taking the time to understand their requirements, in order to deliver this deal.
“At AIB (GB) strong relationships are at the heart of our business and we look forward to working with the team in St Ives and continuing to support their ambitions for the business.” 
Mike Tomlin, pictured left, added: “Thrings is very pleased to have once again worked closely with AIB on this collaborative deal, delivering within a particularly short timeframe, under complex circumstances and involving a large number of legal and advisory entities.
“We were able to advise the bank on the intricate real estate, construction and planning issues which lie at the heart of facility and security packages of this type. The loan is an example of the increasing confidence we are seeing in the lending market, which we are glad to support.”
Central to the resort’s plans was the purchase of the land and property making up the existing facilities. 
Sanderson Weatherall Bristol partner Mark Sheridan, pictured right, provided valuation advice to AIB on the existing holiday homes, leisure complex and land forming the future phases of the resort’s development. Exit strategies were also advised on to ensure a secure grounding for Kingfisher’s acquisition.
He said: “We were delighted to assist AIB and Kingfisher in this transaction in what is a specialist sector, one of a number of similar deals we have been involved in during the past 12 months. Working alongside Thrings we were able to quickly resolve a number of last minute legal and property issues, which were vital to the progression of the deal.”
