Paper reports on city plans ‘doomed project’

NEWSPAPER reports revealing plans for the £100 million redevelopment of inner city Dublin destroyed the project’s chances of success, developer Tom Gilmartin complained to the Mahon Tribunal.

Mr Gilmartin said he feared publicity for the massive shopping centre plan he was putting together for the Bachelors Walk area of the city in 1988 and 1989 because he knew property prices would escalate once word got out about it.

“My concern was that there be no announcement of the project because we would be held to ransom by shadowy figures appearing and starting to buy the properties already on offer so that they could sell them back to us for ransom figures and that’s what happened,” he said.

The tribunal heard that the first newspaper report, published in early 1989, disclosed that Arlington Securities, Mr Gilmartin’s financial backers for the plan, were involved in property deals in the area. “That was the death knell for the project,” he said.

Mr Gilmartin said he was afraid this might happen so he pressurised Arlington to buy up properties “with haste” but the company had put a stop to its purchasing spree while it waited for confirmation that the designation for urban renewal tax incentives would be extended both in terms of the size of the area included and the deadline for development.

The tribunal heard that about half the area Mr Gilmartin intended developing was within the designation and half outside. As he intended to demolish many of the properties and rebuild the area, the blurred designation lines would create difficulties when trying to set rents and work out tax liabilities.

He said it would have been better if the designation was removed entirely rather than have the area split. He also needed the designation time limit extended as it was due to expire at the end of May 1989.

He admitted his relations with Arlington became strained because they did not appreciate the importance of continuing to acquire property. He said they were not willing to take the risk without an absolute guarantee that the changes would be made to the tax designation and he could not convince them to the contrary.

He said he “went to a hell of a lot of trouble” to bring in the investment in the first place and was very concerned that the whole project was “going to sand” but he did not have the final say. “I was just a general dogsbody. The money was theirs so the decision was theirs.” The tribunal heard that it was the Government’s intention to extend the general urban renewal tax designation deadline for two years to the end of May 1991 and to make the decision public in mid-January 1989, but the announcement was postponed because of boundary issues to be sorted out in relation to the docklands. He said he was confident that the area under designation around Bachelors Walk would be expanded, but he insisted that was not his primary concern in trying to keep the project quiet as he said the expansion would not have added greatly to the value of the site. “I was totally opposed to publicity but it was nothing to do with robbing poor people as said in the media. It was so that we were not held to ransom, which we were.”