Construction millionaire Maurice Regan has snapped up a 47ac farm on the doorstep of Coolmore boss John Magnier.

The farm at Beechlawn, Coolanure, in south Tipperary has been in the same family for many years and includes a house, stableyard and grassland.

It is understood that Regan, who founded US construction firm JT Magen and is behind the Irish pub and hospitality group, the Mercantile Group, paid in the region of €25,000 per acre for the property.

Regan owns the 550ac Newtown Anner Stud on the outskirts of Clonmel, as well as a further 550ac-600ac of tillage and grassland in south Tipperary.

Both Newtown Anner Stud and the vendor confirmed the land was bought in a private treaty sale in recent weeks.

In a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, Newtown Anner Stud’s equine manager Stephanie Heeran said: “When the opportunity came

up to buy almost 50ac of the best land in Tipperary we jumped at it.”

It is not yet decided whether the farm, currently under grass, will be used for Regan’s equine or tillage enterprise.

“The property has multiple uses for us. It includes a house, which could be accommodation for staff.

Existing stables

“It has existing stables and a lunging ring in place, so it is a ready-to-go operation for us and could be used as an isolation unit, away from the main farm, for our horses coming from America, Australia and England. The land could supplement the tillage operation,” Heeran said.

Beechlawn is in the heartland of Coolmore’s bloodstock empire, located only a short distance from Coolmore House and the stud’s main office and stallion yard.

Magnier and Regan are currently at loggerheads, albeit indirectly, over the sale of the 751ac Barne Estate nearby.

The Magnier family is taking court proceedings to push through what they maintain was a binding deal with Richard Thomson Moore last August to buy Barne for €15m.

While that deal remains the subject of court wrangling, Regan subsequently agreed to pay €22.25m for the property.

The Magniers’ legal team have accused Thomson Moore of breaching an exclusivity agreement by entertaining offers from Regan to buy the trophy property, and sought damages for the alleged breach.