Joe O'Reilly's Chartered Land is heading the consortium selected as the preferred bidder for Project Trinity, the prime property site in Ballsbridge.

The publicity-shy O’Reilly (51) was the developer behind the Dundrum Town Centre, for which he is best known. He also had a hand in the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, as well as the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and its adjoining office blocks in Dublin’s docklands.

O’Reilly owns numerous retail schemes in Dublin city centre, though plans to redevelop a site on the upper end of O’Connell Street stalled during the recession.

O’Reilly was one of the biggest borrowers whose loans moved in the first wave of transfers to State assets agency Nama, after it was set up in the wake of the financial crisis. Under a process known as Project Jewel, Nama is now in the process of selling a portfolio of loans attached to the Dundrum Town Centre and other O’Reilly retail developments.

Alongside Chartered Land, O'Reilly's other main enterprise is a company called Castlethorn Construction, which he founded in the mid-1980s. Although it is mainly a housebuilding company, it is also the entity behind Dundrum.

He was one of the 'Maple 10' investors who were given loans to buy shares in Anglo Irish Bank in 2008. When O'Reilly gave evidence in the trial of three former Anglo Irish Bank executives last year, he described himself as a "developer, builder" and when asked if he had been a billionaire in 2008 he answered that it was "hard to tell".

O’Reilly is from Co Longford and lives in Foxrock, Dublin.