Умер предприниматель Фрэнк Бойд, который в 2002 году совершил самую смелую сделку по недвижимости в Северной Ирландии

Back in 2002, in Oscars Café on Chichester Street in Belfast, I first met two of the greatest entrepreneurs of their generation, and two of the most likeable and interesting characters I’ve had the privilege to meet in business here. One of them was Frank Boyd, who passed away the weekend before last, after a year of battling terminal illness. The other was Andrew Creighton, who helped to carry Frank’s coffin into an overflowing St Patrick’s church in Downpatrick last Wednesday. In early 2002, Frank and Andrew were among the most successful, best known property developers here, but they had never worked together. On the day I was introduced to them, they were about to pull off the largest, most audacious property deal this little place had ever seen. And they were doing it together, which left most people in the property sector scratching their heads. ‘Andrew and Frank together, no way that’s going to last’, they said. ‘Sure Frank would fight with his shadow, we give it six months at best’ was a common view. They were all wrong. The following week, Frank and Andrew bought the entire Northern Ireland and GB portfolio of Dunloe Ewart plc, 13 different properties in all, for just under £100 million. With very clever trading and new finance from the introduction of partners on some of the sites, the loan they took from Ulster Bank to buy it was paid back inside 18 months. The years to follow, until the crash, saw their main company, William Ewart Properties, grow stronger and a range of new portfolios were acquired in London, Scotland, Germany and at home. Separately and together, the value of their assets was well in excess of £1 billion. It was a business success story like no other here and I felt very lucky to get some exposure to it, through working for them over the years. Despite a small number of other people’s experience of Frank, mine and no doubt the many hundreds attending his funeral from all walks of life, last Wednesday, was always positive. He could be straight-talking but he was always fair and often very entertaining. We had many great laughs. He loved his work, and he had the vision and the bottle to take major risks. He was also an inspirational figure to so many people in the property sector who got their start through him or just learned the trade by watching him. There’s more to Ballycastle than hurling and pints Opens in new window We must accept that the begging bowl is empty Opens in new window Looking at the demographic divide between nationalities Opens in new window ‘Truly one of a kind’ - Tributes paid on the death of Co Down property developer Frank Boyd Opens in new window One of the next generation that I was talking to at the funeral was telling me that he’d recently bought a site for 130 houses from Frank, and while the negotiation was tough, Frank had been fair and very supportive before, during and after the deal. There are hundreds of stories like that. And there also many stories of his quiet generosity on a range of other fronts: the priest told one story about how Frank had made a ‘very, very substantial donation’ to the rebuilding of his local church in Killultagh outside Glenavy, where his parents are buried. I chuckled to myself at the time and wondered if anybody in his family knew the full story (or the full amount) of his support, because Frank generally did things very quietly, without any desire for the spotlight. My brief for the last 20 years has been to try and keep him out of the Press, rather than put him into it. He was always dismissive of any fuss about himself, even though he deserved more praise than he ever got. Frank left school at 16 to become an apprentice electrician. He learned that trade quickly and was already buying houses, rewiring them and fixing them up from an early age. It wasn’t long before he was building his contracting firm, Antrim Electrical, into a major business, before selling it very well to focus on property development, initially through his Kilultagh group of companies and then, with Andrew; William Ewart Properties. Of course, the crash came and this island’s major property players went through massive upheaval as money dried up and values plummeted. It was tough, but like most of his contemporaries, he found a way through. Lesser businesspeople would have buckled, but Frank survived and then prospered again. When I think back, it’s hard to fathom how bad that crash was, but it was a very interesting time to be in business, and it provided the opportunity to watch the likes of Frank and Andrew navigate their way through it. There were other pursuits too. Frank had a great love for the country and for horses. Through Frank’s wife Rose and Andrew’s father George, they owned two-time Cheltenham Champion Hurdle winner Hurricane Fly which, until 2019, was also the world record holder for Grade 1 racing wins (22). He put a hydro-electrical plant into his estate outside Crossgar and then supported his daughter, Fiona, and her husband, David, in their brilliant drinks venture, Shortcross, with the distillery also on the Rademon estate. Frank was also passionate about art and in the art world, he was well known for having a ‘very good eye’, his collection of another humble, understated but extremely talented man, Gerard Dillon, is a marvel; probably the best anywhere in the world. Most importantly though, Frank was a family man who took great pride in his five children, his sons-in-law and his grandchildren. He was only 72 but he’s left a very healthy legacy and in business here, there haven’t been many like him, nor will there be again. Frank Boyd RIP. Paul McErlean is managing director of Cavendish Ireland.