New Bank HQ in Docklands can now proceed

[odlum833]

Dublin City Council have recently granted retention and completion permission for developer Liam Carroll's new bank HQ which was destined for Anglo Irish Bank. The Building is located on the Northside of the Liffey down from the new National Conference Center in the North Lotts Area. It means the existing skeleton of the building which has been constructed can now be completed and the building finished. However it has emerged that Sean Dunne may be looking to stop Carroll's development going ahead by appealing DCC's decisions....

The development looks quite a nice addition to the docklands area and I hope no futher hiccups emerge. Of course id prefer any other tenant but Anglo Irish

Some pics


http://www.totarch.ie/galleries/anglo/anglo.htm

[saoró...]

Its still quite bland and uniform, but nice too, I like it. Wish seán dunne got his way in ballsbridge, but with the way he sues, karma was against him.

[odlum833]

Originally Posted by saoró...

Its still quite bland and uniform, but nice too, I like it. Wish seán dunne got his way in ballsbridge, but with the way he sues, karma was against him.

He seems to have some serious beef with Liam Carroll.....is Sean Dunne just throwing the toys out of the pram? This is indeed a nice building and it would be a shame if he ruined it's completion.


I thought Sean Dunne was bankrupt anyway!?

[odlum833]

A little snippet of news on this today

The State-owned Anglo Irish Bank signalled last week that the bank intends to lease and occupy a building at North Wall Quay in the north Dublin docklands for which it will advance €68 million to the Zoe Group to complete. Anglo’s head of operations confirmed its continued interest in leasing the first block at a meeting with KPMG last Saturday

So looks like it is going to be finished.

[odlum833]

..

Liam Carroll gets permission to finish Anglo HQ

Thursday, 2 September 2010 12:18

An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for developer Liam Carroll's North Quay Investments Limited to complete the building of the proposed Anglo Irish Bank headquarters in Dublin's docklands.

Originally Anglo provided the funding for the development to Mr Carroll's company, North Quay Investments, and was to rent part of the development as its intended new headquarters.

In 2007, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority fast-tracked planning permission to Mr Carroll on the condition that he give some land on the former Brooks Thomas site on North Wall Quay back to the Authority so it could build a park.
Advertisement

As part of the deal the Authority said it would later push for changes to the planning scheme for the area, so further development could take place.

The permission was for an eight-storey office development and was outside the Authority's own planning guidelines for density in the North Lotts' area.

The Authority's confidential agreement with Mr Carroll later caused the High Court to quash planning permission for the development, when rival developer Sean Dunne took a case that led to a ruling that the secret agreement between the planning authority and Mr Carroll gave rise to a 'reasonable apprehension of bias'.

The fast-track permission was invalidated by the High Court and construction stopped on the site.

A new application was made to Dublin City Council to retain the building in its current, unfinished state, and permission for all other works, including facades to be finished.

Dublin City Council gave notification of a decision to grant permission on 2 January 2009.

This was appealed by Mr Dunne's North Wall Quay Property Development later that month.

The appeals and court cases mean the building has been unfinished on Dublin's quays for several years.

Permission has now been upheld to retain and to finish the building.

[saoró...]

Rumors on achiseek that work is now progressing again, any know if this is the case?

[Viking74]

I read somewhere that an American bank has expressed an interest in occupying the building if it's completed, but I guess it will be up to NAMA to make the final decision. I think though that it's psychologically important for the city to have this building either completed or demolished. It's both a symbol of our failed property bubble, and of Anglo Irish Bank itself and we need to pick ourselves up and move on. I hope something happens with it soon.

[saoró...]

Ah, cool. Courageous of them

I agree something needs to be dont with the place. Alternatively, if it were not developed, I reckon it could always be turned into an artwork of sorts, a reminder of past mistakes *deep* or even something thats just more pleasent to look at :P Grow some trees there, make it vertical garden or spray paint some murals etc.

[sallya]

Originally Posted by saoró...

Ah, cool. Courageous of them

I agree something needs to be dont with the place. Alternatively, if it were not developed, I reckon it could always be turned into an artwork of sorts, a reminder of past mistakes *deep* or even something thats just more pleasent to look at :P Grow some trees there, make it vertical garden or spray paint some murals etc.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gall...tical-gardens/

[Catmalojin]

Originally Posted by sallya

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gall...tical-gardens/

That's really interesting - thanks for sharing (and welcome to SkyscraperCity!).

It'd be great to see something like the proposal in sallya's link - a real draw for locals and tourists alike to breathe some life into the area. At the moment it's pretty much dead after 18:00 (when most office workers are gone), unless there's a concert at The O2.

[Catmalojin]

Nama to look at vertical park plan for Anglo quay site

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

Mon, Nov 14, 2011



NAMA HAS invited the promoters of a “vertical park” for the concrete skeleton on North Wall Quay in Dublin, once mooted as headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank, to submit a formal expression of interest for the site before Christmas.

Architect Paschal Mahoney, co-ordinator of the Trees for the Quays project, said the invitation was given to the group by two Nama’s property portfolio managers at a meeting last Thursday.

“We had written to Nama’s chairman, Frank Daly, and then had a meeting for well over an hour with Kevin Nowlan and Colm Lundy to outline the proposal,” he said. “We felt they were anxious to be helpful and we’re to get access to the site on Wednesday.”

The project would involve punching through the concrete floorplates of the skeletal structure to make room for trees and walkways while using the rubble to create an open amphitheatre alongside, with a neighbourhood park to the rear, along Sheriff Street. Mr Mahoney said they also met with accountants McStay Luby, who are acting as receivers for the site, which is owned by the debt-laden Zoe Developments group. They learned the firm had not yet appointed sales agents to market it for disposal.

“The prime creditor would appear to be Nama,” he said. “We’re trying to persuade the agency to look at the bigger picture, and what the Trees for the Quays project would do in terms of increasing the capital value of surrounding properties in the area.

“We were advised of the situation regarding the property being in receivership and the restrictions this imposes, that the receiver has a fiduciary duty to the debtors to do the best financially for them and that this represented significant barrier.

“We are of the view that Nama cannot value this site on a stand-alone basis, as this site is immediately surrounded by several other Nama- controlled sites – so the valuation of the entire grouping of sites is far more important than this single site,” he said.

Separately, two former Zoe directors – David Torpey and John Pope – have set up a new business, Property Asset Management Enhancement Services, to generate interest in completing the North Wall Quay shells.

The eight-storey skeletal block has become something of an an icon of Ireland’s banking collapse. Among those said to be interested in leasing it is US bank BNY Mellon, which is looking at five potential sites in Dublin to centralise its 1,750-strong Irish workforce.

Among those backing the Trees for the Quays project is Philip Cronin, managing director of Intel in Australia and New Zealand, who was among those attending the recent Global Irish Forum in Dublin Castle. Mr Cronin is understood to have lobbied members of the Government, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, to support the proposal, saying he could see great potential for the technology sector becoming associated with such a “sustainable” project.

Following a “very positive” meeting recently with one Government minister whom he declined to name, Mr Mahoney said his group had written to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Arts and Heritage Jimmy Deenihan seeking their support.

© 2011 The Irish Times

There's also this article from a few weeks ago.

[Catmalojin]

From today's Irish Times:

Central Bank likely purchaser of Anglo HQ shell on quays

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

Wed, Dec 14, 2011

THE CENTRAL Bank has emerged as the most likely purchaser of the concrete shell of Anglo Irish Bank’s unfinished headquarters on North Wall Quay in Dublin, The Irish Times has learned.

Negotiations between the Central Bank and Nama, which wants to dispose of the site as part of its resolution of the debts of Liam Carroll’s Zoe Developments group, are at an advanced stage and a decision is imminent.

One well-placed source said the North Wall Quay site is the only one in Dublin with sufficient office space to accommodate all of the Central Bank’s staff, currently based in three main locations in or near the city centre: “We’re on the point of deciding to buy the Anglo site. It’s exactly the right size and fits our staff numbers well. It’s also the cheapest option available. Just because it was being built for Anglo doesn’t mean it should be jinxed.”

Last April, The Irish Times reported that this was one of the options under consideration, but it is now the only one on the table. There is also concern in the Central Bank that if it doesn’t move quickly, it could be “gazumped” by others.

It is known that US bank BNY Mellon looked at locating there.

It is understood the Central Bank took into account the possibility of an adverse public reaction to the State’s financial regulatory authority purchasing the most emblematic structure associated with the bursting of Ireland’s property bubble. But its rationale is the site could be acquired cheaply and the building completed economically, given that construction costs are now lower.

One of the main implications, however, is that the Central Bank would have no further use for its current headquarters on Dame Street.

“We don’t want to shutter it up,” the source said. “Property specialists say there would be no trouble getting tenants for it, or that it could be converted into a hotel in better times. But the building needs complete refurbishment and this can’t be done floor-by-floor.”

Apart from the “tower block” on Dame Street, Central Bank staff are housed in rented office space at two other principal locations – on Harcourt Road and Spencer Dock.

The Anglo shell on North Wall Quay, when completed, would provide 21,400sq m (230,350sq ft) of office space for all 1,500 staff in an institution that has expanded to fulfil its regulatory role in recent years.

© 2011 The Irish Times

Proposed Anglo HQ could house Central Bank in move that would be rich in irony

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Correspondent

Wed, Dec 14, 2011


The proposal by Mahoney Architecture and the Trees on the Quays group for a 'vertical park', to serve as a new landmark on the site once destined to be the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank

Skeletal hulk on Dublin’s quays could be finished to accommodate bank’s growing number of staff

NOTHING SEEMS a more apt metaphor for the boom and bust of the property market than the skeletal hulk of an unfinished office block on Dublin’s North Wall Quay – particularly as it was once destined to be the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank.

But now, with extraordinary symmetry, it may end up being completed to provide a new headquarters for the Central Bank, which had spectacularly failed to regulate the banking sector and prevent the development of the “casino culture” that fuelled the boom and led to the bust. There were other ideas about what should happen to the North Wall Quay hulk, including the radical proposal by Dublin-based Mahoney Architecture and the Trees on the Quays group for a “vertical park”, to serve as a new landmark on the Liffey, nurturing a more sustainable future.

“The public outcry against the great burden of debt imposed by the collapse of the Celtic Tiger resonates in this forlorn concrete frame,” the group said last September.

It believed the legacy of ruin “can and must be transformed into one of renaissance and redemption”, rather than have the derelict structure “dressed in glass and metal to become yet another anonymous office building” – perhaps to house another financial institution.

But the Central Bank is neither ordinary nor anonymous. And it is now on the point of making the momentous decision, following negotiations with Nama, of purchasing the site with a view to completing the abandoned half-built edifice as a headquarters for its growing staff of regulators.

Last April The Irish Times reported that this was merely one of the options under consideration, but it is now the only one on the table. There is also concern in the Central Bank that if it doesn’t move quickly, it could be gazumped by others – possibly even by a canny developer looking to “flip” the site.

There isn’t another office block in Dublin large enough to accommodate the bank’s staff of 1,500 – minus those working in the mint in Sandyford. At present they are housed in three locations – the existing headquarters on Dame Street and rented office space on Harcourt Road and Spencer Dock.

But what would happen to the iconic building that Sam Stephenson designed?

“We don’t want to shutter it up, a source said. “Property specialists say there would be no trouble getting tenants for it, or that it could be converted into a hotel in better times.” Either way, it would need complete refurbishment.

Another possibility being considered by the Central Bank would involve retaining a suite of offices there just to maintain a presence in Dame Street, even though North Wall Quay would be the new headquarters. Those occupying a tented encampment on the plaza in front would certainly miss the bank being there.

© 2011 The Irish Times

[Seravia]

This must be what you're talking about.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...295054829.html

US bank BNY Mellon is looking at renting the half-built HQ once planned for Anglo-Irish Bank.

THE HALF-BUILT office building in the north Dublin docklands which was to have been used as a new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank is one of a number of venues being considered by the American bank, BNY Mellon, for its new Dublin headquarters. Anglo’s ill-fated HQ has become a symbol of Ireland’s property and financial collapse over the past three years.

BNY Mellon, a major global player in investment management and investment services to institutions and high net worth individuals, is seeking a headquarters building of up to 18,580sq m (200,000sq ft) to replace several offices in the city.

BNY Mellon’s Dublin agent Jones Lang LaSalle said yesterday that the partially built office building in the docklands was only one of a number of options being looked at and they had not yet drawn up a short list.

In fact, there are relatively few city office buildings of the size needed by the bank due to the dramatic fall-off in construction when the property market collapsed. The bank has a clear choice of either renting one of a small number of completed pr partially completed buildings or embarking on a design-and-build contract with a developer once it settles on a suitable site in the city.

BNP Mellon is understood to have been interested in Montevetro, the newly-completed high rise office block on Barrow Street, before it was bought by Google.

Agents specialising in the office market still believe there is every likelihood that the bank will opt for the planned Anglo Irish headquarters because of its high profile location overlooking the city quays.

Should that be the bank’s choice it will be then up to the Nama to decide whether to fund the completion of the buildings which will have a floor area of around 21,376sq m (230,000sq ft).

The partially built block was one of a large number of properties owned by Liam Carroll’s Zoe group of companies which collapsed into receivership and liquidation in 2009 with debts of €1.3 billion.

Most of the properties were subsequently transferred to Nama.

Carroll drew down €40 million from Anglo to finance the North Quay development. A court was told lst year that it would cost €8 million to clad the buildings and a further €60 million to complete them.

Nama has a €5 billion fund for investment in projects where it believes it can increase its overall return if it completes unfinished projects.

It is generally believed that Nama would need to agree a rent of between €376 and €430 per sq m (€35 to €40 per sq ft) to justify the additional expenditure.

“I have no doubt Nama would go along with those terms,” an office agent said yesterday. “A deal with the American bank would get them out of jail.”

Great news IMO. It's about time someone came along and finished off the building - It's just such an eyesore.

[saoró...]

Nice one, cheers!

[Viking74]

If there's now a shortage of prime office space maybe we'll see some movement on some of the big projects proposed before the collapse? Like Aquavetro and some of the other offices proposed for the Spencer dock area? Hopefully so

[Seravia]

Does anyone have a render of what the finished building is supposed to look like. I can't seem to find one. >_<

[odlum833]

I will find some renders for you.

Great to see it under way again but the real news here is not the building but the confidence boost to add to those extraordinary export figures last week. Things do seem to be looking up. Pardon the pun.

[odlum833]

Speaking of Anglo Irish Bank - the bank signage came down this week. Crowds and the media where there to witness the event

[thebig C]

Well if the finished product is anything like the render it will be alot better then the lumpen skeleton sitting there at the moment! Like a reminder of everything thats bad. I say, either finish it or demolish it!

Incidentally, does anybody remember Carroll applying to increase the height to 16 stories at some point?

C

[saoró...]

Originally Posted by thebig C

Incidentally, does anybody remember Carroll applying to increase the height to 16 stories at some point?

Does the area have an LAP? No doubt he would have be denied though.