Berlin MPs urge action on 'Charlie' sites

BERLIN POLITICIANS have called on the German government to seize two vacant sites at Checkpoint Charlie controlled – though not owned – by Mayo brothers Michael and Cathal Cannon.

The brothers have denied reports that the former Cold War border crossing will come under the hammer at a foreclosure auction next month. But politicians, after two decades of watching would-be investors come and go, are not convinced.

“A historical site like this cannot be flogged off by any old investor in a foreclosure auction,” said Kai Wegner, Bundestag MP for Berlin for chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats, to the Berliner Morgenpost.

Party colleague Monika Grütters, also an MP in Berlin, called on the federal government to “examine and discuss what one wants to do with this historic soil”.

Berlin’s state government has said its hands are tied for the moment. Memories are still fresh of previous expropriations of the two sites, which ended in expensive restitution claims against the state.

“We were happy to have the Irish investors come in but, five years in, we still have received no planning application,” said a city spokesman. “As long as it is private property, we see no means to intervene or, at present, force development.”

Land registry files show the previous owner, CEDC American Business Center, lost control of the sites in 1993 to its bank.

The Cannons were first mentioned in 1993 through their firm KE Kavel, though their interest was first registered officially in 2007. Two years later the registry shows the debts on the site were offered as security to Allied Irish Bank, control of which has since passed over to control of Nama.

Michael Cannon said his company will pay outstanding rates of €400,000 and assume ownership before the foreclosure auction on May 10th, clearing the way for development.

Sources familiar with the Irish investors’ plans say they have received approaches from hotel owners anxious to acquire one of the sites. Berlin’s state government has made a museum or memorial a prerequisite to any development, but has no money to fund it.

“A well-known world peace foundation has expressed an interest in running a Cold War museum on the other site,” said the source. “The brothers would like to retain both sites, but they are getting a lot of flak from Nama.”