A WELL-KNOWN Wexford building firm, Ellen Construction, has become the latest casualty of the economic recession.

The company with addresses at Glenville Road and Coolhull, Duncormick, went into liquidation last week, with the loss of about 70 direct jobs and hundreds of sub-contracting jobs.

The firm ceased trading as the directors asked Ulster Bank to appoint a receiver to the business which employed 400 people at the height of the building boom.

Ellen Construction owes Ulster Bank ¤30 million, while the bank is also owed a further ¤20 million by related companies and ventures.

Among the assets to go into receivership are a holiday home scheme in Co. Wexford and an apartment complex on the East Wall Road in Dublin.

The company was founded in June 1995 by Duncormick brothers Michael and Martin Doran, who named it after their mother Ellen. The firm grew along with the country's building boom and enjoyed major success.

Ellen Construction specialised in high-profile commercial, retail and residential developments along with the restoration of heritage buildings.

Among the major projects that the compny built during the past decade are Bewley's Hotel in Ballsbridge, Leopardstown and Manchester; the Winter Gardens in Pearse Street, Dublin; the Brook Lodge Hotel at Macreddin Village, County Wicklow; The Court Killiney Bay, Dublin; South County Golf Club, Brittas, County Dublin, and the Rochestown Lodge Hotel in Dun Laoghaire. The firm was also behind the Waterside development in New Ross; Clearwater Cove in Rosslare and Aylesbury in Ferrybank, Waterford.

In a sign of the pressure the company was under in the wake of the building boom collapse, it slashed prices at its new housing development in Fairview Close in Dublin earlier this year – reducing three-bedroom apartments from ¤525,000 to ¤380,000 and one-bedroom units from ¤345,000 to ¤275,000.

- Maria PEPPER