Nearly everyone will remember the forest of tower cranes that appeared along Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin's docklands during the boom years to build an array of office buildings for firms of lawyers and banks, among others. A similar eruption of construction activity is now in prospect for the North Lotts, on the opposite side of the Liffey, as developers draw up plans for commercial and residential blocks on the large acreage of land that's been lying idle since the property bubble burst in 2008. Indeed, it has already started with the Central Bank redeveloping the infamous hulk of Anglo Irish Bank's abandoned office block to serve as its own headquarters, after it moves out of Dame Street. This will provide an "anchor" for the North Lotts area as distinctive as the nearby Convention Centre Dublin.
What makes the area doubly attractive is that it's all covered by a Strategic Development Zone designation, which effectively exempts all projects that comply with the latest docklands master plan from the normal planning process; if a scheme complies with the master plan in terms of height, mix of uses and other key parameters, it will get planning approval, with no risk of any third-party appeal to An Bord Pleanála. In other words, the SDZ offers a degree of certainty to developers that they wouldn't enjoy in the rest of central Dublin. The involvement of the National Asset Management Agency in a large proportion of the properties, through its control of distressed developers' loan-books should also ensure that social objectives – for example, the provision of pocket parks – are not entirely lost.
Nama's role in all of this is essentially that of a shepherd, directing developers to particular sites and seeking the best possible outcomes for its own balance sheet and for taxpayers. What's different now is that most of the developers currently active in the docklands are from overseas, in place of home-grown operators like Liam Carroll. The 2.2-hectare site that he assembled on North Wall Quay looks set to be developed by a consortium led by Singapore-based Oxley Holdings, in partnership with the irrepressible Seán Mulryan's Ballymore Properties.
Project Wave, as it's called, would provide more than 50,000 sq m (538,000 sq ft) of offices and at least 250 apartments on a site that wraps around the Central Bank's future headquarters. Interestingly, Oxley is headed by former Singapore police officer Ching Chiat Kwong, nicknamed the "Shoebox King" for his trademark compact flats. With the involvement of many other foreign investors such as Hines and Kennedy Wilson (both from the US) as well as several "vulture funds", what we are witnessing is globalisation of the Irish property market and the largest transfer of ownership from native to foreign entities in the history of the State.