Central Bank to buy Anglo building

THE CENTRAL Bank has agreed to buy the building on the north quays in Dublin city centre previously earmarked as a new head office for the now defunct Anglo Irish Bank for about €8 million.

An agreement in principle has been reached for the Central Bank to purchase the half-built structure, which has become a symbol of the Irish banking and property crash, from the State’s National Asset Management Agency.

The purchase has yet to be finalised. Sources stressed that legal paperwork had not been signed and that the board of the Central Bank has yet to give formal approval to the purchase.

Spokesmen for Nama and the Central Bank declined to comment as a deal had not been concluded.

The Central Bank has grown rapidly in size in response to the banking crisis and to address regulatory failures that played a key role in the causes of the crisis.

The number of staff employed at the Central Bank has risen from 1,022 at the end of 2008 to 1,372 at the end of last year. Most new staff have been hired for the regulatory side of the bank’s operations.

Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said in February that staff could not be accommodated at the Central Bank’s head office on Dame Street and that they had to be located across six locations, including leased offices in Spencer Dock and on Harcourt Street. He said in a public speech that the “clock is ticking on our occupancy of the Dame Street tower”.

Mr Honohan said the Central Bank could retain some activities in its building on Dame Street for a number of years as the relocation would not take place quickly. The Central Bank will have to fund the completion of the property, which has also been the subjection of interest from other interested parties.

The structure on the North Wall Quay was built by Zoe Group, the property business owned by developer Liam Carroll with loans from Anglo which have moved to Nama.

The High Court was told during a court case on the collapse of the group in August 2009 that €60 million in loans to finish the block remained undrawn from Anglo.

Plans to turn the building into the lender’s new head office were abandoned following the nationalisation of the bank in 2009.