Interesting to see the reports in the Irish Times earlier in the week ,and confirmed this morning by Frank Daly of NAMA that the sale of the unfinished Anglo Headquarters building is very close.

Apart from the money that NAMA will receive from the sale this will give a badly needed boost to the north Docklands and significantly contribute to filling in the gaps between the Convention Centre and the Point Village.

The building when finished has the capacity to house up to 1500 people ( it is rumored the either the Central Bank or Bank Mellon NY are the purchasers)

The influx of that number of new office workers should have the knock on benefit in the opening up of support retail outlets , such as restaurants , shops , pharmacies etc, close by.

All this should greatly enhance the look of the area. The regeneration of the Docklands is one of the few positive legacies of the building boom.

I dont mean to be smart.....but...

Why exactly is the docklands badly in need of a boost.

The area has had, literally, billions thrown at it in recent years. The white elephant of a luas line down the the point depot is something that people in Finglas or Cabra would be delighted with. There are 100,000 people living in Finglas and Cabra.....there are (guessing) no more than a few hundred living at that end of the docks.....

Just sayin'....

The only 'badly in need of a boost' I see down that neck of the woods is the pockets of Harry Crosbie and other developers, and to be honest these guys are great lobbyers but they are not poor.

By the way, wasnt there a story that the Central Bank would 'buy' it......that is to say, taxpayers would buy it.

Central Bank buys the building circa €8m, BBG reports (rte reports that BBG reports!)

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0416/central-bank-to-buy-anglo-building-on-quays.html

Namawinelake has been reporting this for about a month now

Why does the Central Bank now need so many staff that they require this on top of Dame street, and their other building down around spencer dock.

They must be planning on hiring a rake of people getting paid off from the banks or something. There's no lending going on, deposits are flat. Are they just creating work for themselves to justify their existence or what. That's what we need more of, not.

Glad to see progress on this. It should have been CPO'd by the state, 2+ years ago.

Ah yeah but sure why not wait for two harsh winters to get into the structure first before letting a state agency take it over for it's bloated ranks.

Central bank also regulates the IFSC and the funds industry.

Both of these are growing rapidly

As someone who has never bought an office block I'm no expert but 8 million for a shell-like structure seems overpriced. Bear in mind that we, the taxpayers are buying it!

It seems a little too neat that one state agency, the Central Bank, takes an unwanted property off another state agency, NAMA - and at a hefty price.

And how many more gazillions will be spent on finishing and fitting out this office block?

Probably another €40m

But to put things in perspective Google paid €100m for a similar sized building last year.

But Google Inc is somewhat more solvent than Ireland Inc!

Chap from bloomberg Dublin was on matt cooper discussing this last night and if I heard correctly stated that the Central bank head count has increased by 250 over the past couple of years, many of whom are dispersed across a number of sites. The current building can't accomodate them. Many recruited are on the regulation side as you suggest.

He also mentioned that there was a bidding process and that the CBI won out over other bidders although AFAICR he didn't mention who these were.

That might explain why they paid double the price

Surprising as it may seem there is a shortage of 100k + sq ft offices in Dublin.