Central Bank set to pay Nama €8m for Anglo’s half-built ivory tower

The Central Bank has agreed to pay about €8m for a half-completed Dublin office block that’s synonymous with the real-estate crash, according to a source.

The bank will buy the building on North Wall Quay from Nama, said the source.

Anglo Irish Bank had planned to use the tower as its headquarters before the bank’s collapse helped push the country towards the international bailout agreed in 2010.

“We don’t comment on speculation about individual transactions, but we’ve previously indicated that we are optimistic we will secure a satisfactory deal in respect of this property in the medium term and that remains our position,” said Nama spokesman Ray Gordon.

The building came to symbolise the demise of the country’s economy. It was constructed by Liam Carroll, one of the country’s biggest developers, who has seen many of his assets seized by banks.

“No deal has been finalised,” Neil Whoriskey, a Central Bank spokesman, said yesterday.

“We don’t comment on the specifics of individual negotiations.”

The skeleton office block is “becoming a landscape photo for Ireland internationally,” Brendan McDonagh, Nama’s chief executive told politicians on Oct 26.

“Everybody who comes to Dublin to see us wants to see the Anglo Irish Bank building; they ask the taxis to bring them around. It is a landscape eyesore and it needs to be dealt with.”

Commercial property prices have fallen about 65% since September 2007, Investment Property Databank said at the start of this year.