Report backs Treasury on docklands site contract with CIE

A report commissioned by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, supports Treasury Holding's assertion that it has a legally binding contract with CIE to develop Spencer Dock, despite failing to get planning permission for its elaborate National Conference Centre-based scheme.

The Minister asked for the report - after An Bord Pleanala refused planning permission for the £1.2 billion (#1.5 billion) scheme - to establish if CIE could now sell the £100 million-plus site in Dublin's docklands. The Minister is keen that CIE dispose of its non-essential land in order to raise cash for investment in infrastructure.

Ms O'Rourke had previously commissioned an independent valuation of the company's land bank with a view to disposing of unwanted property, but Spencer Dock was not included. The company board is against selling unused land and believes it should at least partially develop any property before disposal in order to realise its full value. Treasury Holdings and CIE are currently working on a new scheme for the 40-acre site which is one of the largest tracts of development land in central Dublin.

A spokesman for Treasury said that "everything was in the pot" and that there was no guarantee that a 2,500-seat conference centre as originally envisaged would be included in the new scheme. The developers had always maintained the convention centre was only economic in the context of the development proceeding in its totality.

The spokesman said the company's view was that there is a legally binding agreement between CIE and Treasury to proceed to develop an alternative scheme.

A senior CIE source said it was not surprising Treasury felt it had a legally binding contract with CIE as it had carried the costs of the original development work and the planning application. Another source familiar with the report given by CIE to the Department on the site said it "did not contradict" the assertion by Treasury, but was "somewhat vague" about the arrangement.

A spokesman for CIE said yesterday the company had made a submission to Urban Initiative, the consultant hired to come up with a new proposal. He would not comment on CIE's input or whether it still included a conference centre. "Our job is to maximise our property revenues," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Enterprise declined to comment on what the department's position would be if the new scheme did not include a conference centre.

CIE's involvement in the Spencer Dock project has always been controversial as the company did not seek tenders from other prospective partners. Instead it entered into an agreement with Treasury Holdings just before the introduction of a new set of guidelines stipulating that such projects should always go to public tender. The Dublin Docklands Development Agency, which is charged with redeveloping the area, made no secret of the fact that it would have liked to have been involved in the development of the site.

The £1.2 billion high-rise scheme put forward by the Spencer Dock consortium included a 2,500-seat conference centre as its centre point. It also involved two hotels, nine office blocks and 11 apartment blocks on the 51-acre site. An Bord Pleanala ruled that the development was inappropriate and only gave approval to the convention centre part of the project.

If the original project had been built it would have been the largest development in the history of the State. During the planning hearings a CIE official said it would provide the company with "several hundred million pounds of funds in the short to medium term for essential investment in public transport".