Neighbourhood Watch

The grand finale of phase two of the Irish Financial Services Centre on the Custom House Docks will be the opening of the National College of Ireland campus in September 2001. By then, the 12-acre extension to the IFSC will provide an additional 650,000 sq ft of office space, bringing the overall office area to almost two million sq ft. The apartments in the Clarion Quay complex will bring the total in the area to 933 apartments.

In the autumn, a second hotel is due to be opened in the IFSC by the Clarion Group. There are also plans for more retail outlets, two cafe bars with river views, and a creche. Unlike with phase one, built in the early 1990s, companies moving into the IFSC extension will not qualify for double rent allowances.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority estimates that there are already between 12,000 and 14,000 people working in the enlarged IFSC area, which now comprises 39 acres, but says it has no definitive figures on how many people are currently living there. The resident population is largely made up of young executives, many of whom are working in the centre and renting apartments.

Second-hand apartments are selling from about £170,000 for a one-bed with no parking to about £195,000 with parking. One-beds with studies are going for between £200,000 and £215,000 and two-beds, which vary in size from about 620 to 800 sq ft are selling from £240,000 to £300,000-plus.

The last new apartments sold in the IFSC were in the second phase of Custom House Square, a three-phase development being sold through Douglas Newman Good. They sold in February this year for £165,190 for the onebed apartments and £220,000 to £270,000 for the two-beds.

The IFSC has been an unqualified success in terms of hefty returns to the Exchequer but has not always had the same success in its relations with the local community. However, Marie O'Reilly of the North Port Dwellers Association says "a greater attempt has been made to bring the local community on board" in the second phase.

"When the IFSC was originally built in the early 1990s a lot of promises of employment for locals were made by the Custom House Docks Development Authority that weren't followed through. The DDDA, which replaced it in 1997, has adopted a more integrated policy. We as a community have never been against development as long as it is properly planned sensitive development in consultation with the community."

Locals await with bated breath the outcome of An Bord Pleanala's decision on the Spencer Dock Development which, they say, if approved, would be "disastrous for the community". There is also controversy over a proposed bridge from Macken Street to Guild Street.

Renovation of a decaying early 19th-century stack beside Jury's Inn on the Custom House Docks has been held up while the Government considers Dermot Desmond's glazed eco-sphere proposal.