Three buyers are understood to have bid to buy the half-built Dublin building intended as a headquarters for the now-nationalised Anglo Irish Bank – a development that has become synonymous with Ireland’s financial collapse.
Two of the larger occupiers looking for space in Dublin, the Irish Central Bank and US bank BNY Mellon, are understood to be in talks to buy the development scheme from the Irish National Asset Management Agency, along with a group of managers from Zoe Group, the company that started the development.
Zoe Group is one of the property companies of Irish developer Liam Carroll, one of the largest borrowers to have their debts transferred to NAMA.
The development in Dublin’s Docklands area was initiated when Anglo was one of the best performing banks in the world, but as the credit crunch unfolded, and the poor quality of the bank’s loan book brought it down, the scheme was halted. There have been calls from politicians to leave it half finished, as a reminder and warning of the excesses of the credit boom.
The scheme is thought to have a price tag of around €10m. It has already had €40m ploughed into its development, but it is estimated that it will cost another €68m to complete.
BNY Mellon and the Central Bank are both on the lookout for around 200,000 sq ft of space. The amount of new grade A space in Dublin is limited, with the credit crunch having put a stop to almost all new development.
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