US bank may rent Anglo Irish building

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.”