A WEALTHY individual has approached the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA)with a view to “taking over” the CHQ or Stack A building, according to a group that would prefer to see the building host a science museum.
Seana Kevany, a member of the Discovery group which has been campaigning for the establishment of a science museum at the building, said she and others were told this when they met the authority’s chief executive, Gerry Kelly, on Friday last.
Ms Kevany said they were told the idea would be brought to the board on May 10th, but that Mr Kelly would not say who the individual was, or what he wanted to do with the building.
The building was restored at a cost of approximately €30 million and opened as a retail centre in 2006. It is understood to be losing money and the authority is known to be looking at alternative uses.
Discovery wants half the building to be given over to a science museum. The establishment of a museum has long been a policy objective of the authority, though one that has never been achieved. Leases in the docklands provide for a levy that would fund a museum and that would come into effect once one was opened.
An authority spokesman said it remains “committed to CHQ as a retail outlet. We are working with the tenants in the building to make it as successful as possible.”
Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan yesterday released documents showing former DDDA chief executive Paul Maloney writing to Mary Moylan, a civil servant with the Department of the Environment and a director of the DDDA, on October 2nd, 2006, seeking to have a €127 million borrowing facility put in place, following a decision of the authority.
The move was related to the authority’s subsequent disastrous purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, in a joint venture with developers Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan.
Minutes of a board meeting of the following day, show Mr Maloney raising the issue for the first time with the board, with Ms Moylan attending the meeting.
A source said such matters are often progressed in parallel informal and formal processes, and this could explain the dates.