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Events Centre
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Pointing out that your language seems somewhat biased doesn't imply knowledge - it's merely an observation and I say that as somebody who knows nothing of the past events regarding Mahon Point/Events Centre and is using this thread to learn more. I'm glad you're raising these points, but your language seems lobsided to be fair
All that said, I'm not the grammar police, is there any information on why there wasn't an investigation into the change to Mahon Point? Must look into it further myself but if people have links on the fallout I'd appreciate them
I had taken the time to give a long reply but it got wiped when I tried to post. Anyway,
Firstly, how can you or he sit in judgement, when both of you have admitted not having knowledge of the subject ? !!!
Maybe if you had that knowledge, you might think my use of "grotesque" was underwhelming !
Secondly, re investigations, in this country ? That said, Phil Hogan killed 6 inquiries in to Planning, 2 of which were Cork City and Cork County Councils in 2012. That was the closest we ever got to any sort of inquiry down here.
Tom Gilmartin's son, Tom Jr, has said this in the pastThe circumstances of the Mahon Point tender going to O'Callaghan as the lower bidder never got a full airing in the Tribunal, as it was outside the terms of reference - as was the very murky circumstances of the tax designation of Golden Island Shopping Centre in Athlone (see here... http://www.politics.ie/forum/tribuna...signation.html ).
What bugs me the most is the fawning free press O'Callaghan gets in the Evening Echo and Examiner - they have given him a very soft ride throughout the Tribunal process despite the very obvious corruption found in the Tribunal report (as has Vincent Browne, for some entirely strange reason).
Among the allegations at the Tribunal was that O'Callaghan boasted about his 'influence' over councils and city managers. The utter failure of the media to act as a watchdog on events involving this man is yet another reason why I think Ireland's politics and media are among the most backwards in the western world.
Let's not forget what the Mahon Tribunal saidIn its report today, the Tribunal accepted Mr Gilmartin's evidence that he had been told by Mr O'Callaghan that he paid money to Mr Ahern.
But it also found it had not been proved that the payments had actually been made.
The Tribunal is also satisfied that Mr O'Callaghan told broadcaster Eamon Dunphy that Mr Ahern was “taken care of” and that Mr O'Callaghan found it necessary to engage in corrupt activity in order to successfully develop property in Dublin.
The Report says that over a ten-year period, from 1991 to 2001, over £1.8 million was paid to or for the benefit of Frank Dunlop by Mr O'Callaghan, through the companies Riga Ltd, Barkhill Ltd and Shefran Ltd.
The Tribunal found that part of the funds in Shefran were used for the purposes of making corrupt payments to councillors in respect of the Quarryvale development.
It also said that it was satisfied that the late Liam Lawlor's relationship with lobbyist Mr Dunlop and Mr O'Callaghan was firmly based in corruption.
The background
Irish Examiner archives are behind a paywall but I have found a copy of an article from Feb 1998Scottish firm offers £57m for 111 acres of Cork Corporation land
Examiner Feb.18th 1998
by Tommy Barker
CORK CITY is due for a windfall with a record £57 million offered by a Scottish development company for 111 acres of Cork Corporation land at Mahon.
This was at least twice the sum expected.
There were 22 tenders received, ranging from the record £500,000 per acre received from the McDonald Estates to the lowest of £9·2m for the site which is close to the Lee tunnel.
Elated Corporation officials and elected members, who attended last night's opening of the tenders, could not believe the money being offered for the foreshore site.
"These proposals and sums being offered are beyond our wildest expectations.
"The highest offer is enough money to run the city for a year. It should allow us do many of the things we have been dreaming of doing," said a delighted Councillor Noel O'Flynn.
However, town clerk Jim O'Donovan pointed out they would not necessarily accept the highest tender and the proposals submitted by all 22 contenders will go to an expert group for evaluation.
The proposals all include a mix of housing, shopping and commercial buildings in what will be one of the single biggest developments ever in the city.
The top offer from McDonalds, a company with no track record of development in this country, proposes a 600,000 sq. ft 'Mega Mall' type development which would be six times the size of Cork's Wilton Shopping Centre and twice the size of the sprawling Blanchardstown or Jervis Shopping centres in Dublin.
The proposal also includes cinemas, housing and apartments.
The other tenders were received from a number of Irish and British interests with the second largest offer being of £35m from Tesco, the British retailers that paid £600m for Quinnsworths last year.
Two local groups were O'Callaghan and McCarthy, in which Owen O'Callaghan and lawyer Tom McCarthy are involved and Ballinure, which includes Clayton Love and Michael Flynn of O'Flynn Construction.
The decision on which tender to accept is expected to be made as quickly as possible.
"Money is not solely the deciding factor.
"We will be looking for proposals which will have lasting long-term benefits to the area and to the city as a whole", said Jim O'Donovan
Tender bids for the hotly-contested land bank were opened at City Hall last night by management, with some elected members and the Lord Mayor.
The property was first advertised for sale by Cork Corporation in July last year, and the date for a sale was put back several times to the final tender date of February 28.
In the intervening period the price expectation rose dramatically, from an initial £5 to £10 million to as much as £57 million.
However, even before the proposal is accepted there are fears it could cause major planning problems and lead to objections from a range of bodies.
Major retail developments of from 200,000 to 300,000 sq. ft., about the size of two or three Wilton or Douglas shopping centres, would conflict with the Cork City Development Plan and a recently commissioned Retail Study of County Cork , including the city.
Several proposals are understood to facilitate major, new department stores such as Debenhams, or C & A's , which cannot get a suitable sized space in Cork City centre.
The retail study, commissioned by both Cork Corporation and Cork County Council, indicated a need for up to 500,000 sq. ft. of shopping space for Cork city and county by the year 2003, but argued half of this should be provided in the city centre and the rest spread around the suburbs and major towns, to include about 130,000 sq. ft. of retail warehousing.
Any plan for a significant centre at Mahon would have a direct impact on two existing shopping centres in Douglas, on the entire city centre and on rival development proposals for sites just north east of the tunnel in Little Island.
Then, by April 1998Cork Examiner
£300m plan will create 3,400 jobs in city suburb
by Tommy Barker April 17th 1998
ONE of the country's biggest commercial developments is expected to create 3,400 full-time jobs — 4,500 during construction — following Cork Corporation's provisional acceptance of a £40m bid for 111 acres of land.
The tender, by O'Callaghan Properties for the local authority land, in the Cork suburb of Mahon and adjacent to the Lee tunnel, works out at £370,000 an acre.
It has been given the green light by City manager Jack Higgins and will be put to Corporation members for approval on Monday.
Owen O'Callaghan's successful £36·5m bid is to be topped up with a pledge to build a £5m National Trade Centre, also at Mahon, bringing the total package for the 111 acres to over £40m. On top of this, the overall development costs could reach £250m, bringing the total to around £300m.
The 'sweetener' deal on a multi-million pound Millennium Convention Centre is expected to swing Cork Corporation members' support.
The main plank of O'Callaghan's offer is a major retail centre, along with large hotel, 560 houses and apartments, a business park, cinema and leisure complex, as well as the national trade or convention centre.
It is likely Government will be pressed to approve matching European funds for the trade centre.
Mr Higgins confirmed his recommendation will go to Corporation members, at committee level, on Monday, where the proposal will be formally presented but not voted on until a later date.
"The full details will have to be teased out, but the proposal offers a very exciting prospect, and the proposed convention trade centre will be a tremendous asset," stated Mr Higgins.
Last night O'Callaghan Properties confirmed they had been told their proposals had been accepted.
Sources say the plan, which includes a shopping element of about 200, 000 square feet, — equivalent to 20% of the retail space in Cork city centre — will face a rigorous planning procedure and most likely a number of appeals and objections from city traders and from business people in county towns who feel it will take trade from places like Midleton, Fermoy and Mallow.
An application for judicial review of the sale procedure from a disappointed bidder cannot be ruled out.
The selection of the O'Callaghan Properties/Tom McCarthy bid has been welcomed by Lord Mayor Cllr. David McCarthy, who said the prospect of several thousand jobs was to be especially welcomed.
"It has been selected as the best project by an independent selection committee, and I'd hope all the Corporation members will endorse it on Monday night," he stated.
A special city Millennium committee, of which Owen O'Callaghan was a member, has already made recommendations to Government seeking a major Millennium project for Cork city. It identified a convention centre as a key project which would have valuable spin-offs.
In all, 22 bids or proposals were received for the land, ranging in value up to £57 million, and this list was narrowed down to nine, of which eight groups(
attended for a final selection interview by an independent panel chaired by Dublin City Manager John Fitzgerald.
A number of bidders for a CIE-owned quayside property on Horgan's Quay, meanwhile, have been asked to attend for interviews which will determine this second major city site sale in mid-May, and it is likely to sell for up to £15m. At least two local property developers are in the running, including Owen O'Callaghan and O'Flynn Construction.
Owen O'Callaghan, who built the Merchants Quay, the Paul Street and the North Main Street shopping centres in Cork city as well as others in Limerick and Athlone, is due to open the £200 million Liffey Valley centre, in Dublin, this October.
So, in effect, O'Callaghan got that 111 acres for £41m whereas the Scottish company had bid nearly 50% more at £57m, and he didn't pay £5m of that £41m for a further 8 years after he "won" the bid !!!
It is clear he had no intention of building that International Trade centre, despite it being such a striking offer that it swung the bidding process, and giving the City Council such a woefully lower price for the land.
Subsequently, Howard Holdings were going to claim that £5m (€6m) to build a conference centre where the Live at the Marquee was, until HH went bust.O’Callaghan must pay €6m penalty
ONE of the country's top developers is to pay a €6 million penalty clause to Cork City Council which will help fund a rival's development of a conference centre in the city's docklands.
Details of how Owen O'Callaghan will pay back €6,094,742.78 to the city, following a decision not to build a trade centre at his Mahon Point site, will be unveiled tonight almost eight years after the deal was signed.
Proposals for a 15,200sqm trade centre were included in Mr O'Callaghan's ultimately successful bid for the 111-acre land bank at Mahon Point which was put up for sale by the then Cork Corporation in the late 1990s.
Mr O'Callaghan has gone on to develop the Mahon Point shopping centre and retail park on the site.
However, the memorandum of agreement on the sale signed in 1999, but subject to planning permission, included a trade centre agreement. It was hoped that European Regional Development Funding could be secured to help fund the project.
In the event the centre was not built, a £4.8m penalty clause was built in, but Mr O'Callaghan would always retain ownership of the land.
Planning permission for his Mahon Point project was not finalised until 2002, at which point the city's need for a trade centre had been replaced with a need for a conference or events centre.
City manager Joe Gavin indicated earlier this year he would call in the Mahon Point penalty clause and consider other sites for a conference centre.
Last April he invited conference centre proposals from the private sector and said the city would back the project to a maximum of €12m.
A Howard Holdings proposal to build a €33m conference and events centre in the city's docklands, which sought €8.25m in city funding, was finally backed.
Mr Gavin will tell a council meeting tonight that following months of negotiations between city officials and Mr O'Callaghan, the Mahon Point trade centre issue has been brought to a conclusion.
The immediate payment of €6.1m will be sought from Mr O'Callaghan's company, Riga Ltd.
"This money will be put towards the new events/conference centre to be built by Howard Holdings in the docklands," his report says.
Fast Forward to 2014, and in the intervening time, there had been no interest in building an Event Centre by O'Callaghan. Heineken had spent 3 years preparing designs and had worked with business groups/City Council to re-develop the Beamish site and the neglected "Brewery Quarter". It was only when the Government added the extra millions of euro that OCP entered the fray with his standalone Albert Quay proposal, and the Irish Examiner along with some Councillors got in their support.
Deputy Lord Mayor Ken O’Flynn of Fianna Fáil said Mr O’Callaghan’s proposal in the city’s docklands is “the only show in town”. :rolleyes:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/event-centre-funding-winner-known-next-month-272336.htmlIt emerged last night that two parties — O’Callaghan Properties, and the joint venture between Heineken Ireland and BAM Contractors — have been invited to submit final tenders ahead of the final decision which will emerge by July 8.
Mr O’Callaghan has planning permission for a €50m 6,000-capacity events centre on Albert Quay.
A €50m 6,000-capacity events centre is the focal point of Heineken/BAM’s €150m Brewery Quarter regeneration of the former Beamish and Crawford site on South Main St.
Dan Buggy, acting chief executive of Cork City Council, told city councillors last night two applications were received after the publication of its Competitive Dialogue Procurement process earlier this year.
Both submissions received by City Hall were deemed suitable and were invited to participate in a dialogue process, he said.
“There were three rounds of dialogue meetings rather than the anticipated two and this phase has now been completed and both parties have been invited to submit final tenders,” said Mr Buggy.
“It is anticipated that these will be received and assessed by the final evaluation panel with a view to a final report issuing by July 8.”
This report, which will indicate the preferred developer, will then come before city councillors at their meeting on July 14 for a decision on whether or not the council will invest in the preferred project.
A potential kick-start fund of up to €16m is on offer — €10m from the Government announced in last December’s budget and up to €6m from the city council.
Fine Gael’s John Buttimer and Sinn Féin’s Chris O’Leary said it is key that councillors get enough time to consider the final report before they vote on possible city investment in a centre.
Fianna Fáil’s Tom O’Driscoll said it is also essential all recently elected councillors are fully briefed on the proposal.
Deputy Lord Mayor Ken O’Flynn of Fianna Fáil said Mr O’Callaghan’s proposal in the city’s docklands is “the only show in town”.
“It will kick off the city’s docklands development and will encourage investors to invest in Cork,” he said.
Mr O’Flynn called on its owners, Heineken Ireland, to gift the Beamish site to the city if it is not selected.
Planning permission is also still valid for an events centre on the old Ford distribution site near Páirc Uí Chaoimh, proposed by Howard Holdings.
Finally, at the start of July 2014, LiveNation pulled out, followed by OCP.The venue’s proposed operator, Live Nation Ireland, has also expressed concerns about certain terms in the tender process, leaving question marks over the validity of the only tender now left on the table — the Brewery Quarter project. It will be examined this weekend by an independent panel overseen by PwC to determine whether or not it is valid.
The news emerged last night after the deadline for submission of the final tenders passed.
O'Callaghan Properties and the joint venture between Heineken Ireland and BAM Contractors, were the only participants in the final stages of a complex selection process which was due to conclude next week.
Mr O’Callaghan has planning permission for a €50m 6,000-capacity events centre on Albert Quay.
A €50m 6,000-capacity events centre is the focal point of Heinken/BAM’s €150m Brewery Quarter regeneration of the former Beamish and Crawford site on South Main St.
The chosen developer was in line to receive a taxpayer-funded incentive package of up to €16m — €10m from the Government and up to €6m from the city council.
Live Nation, the operator of Dublin’s O2, was working with both developers and was poised to operate whichever venue got the green light.
However, the Irish Examiner has learned that Heineken Ireland and BAM Contractors were the only party to submit a final tender by yesterday’s deadline.
A spokesman for Mr O’Callaghan said O’Callaghan Properties was not in a position to submit a “compliant legal tender as a result of the non-participation of the operator Live Nation Ireland in the tender process”.
“There is a specific requirement under the tenders conditions for an operator to be involved and to provide signed covenants for a tender to be accepted.”
It means Heineken and Bam’s Brewery Quarter project on the former Beamish brewery site is the only proposal left in the race.
Essentially, because there was no operator left in the Tender, O'Callaghan was calling for the voiding of the entire process, even though he had pulled out.
There was a 2nd Tendering process, this time without an operator, and it was again won by Heineken/BAM.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/call-for-emergency-meeting-on-tender-for-cork-events-centre-282485.html
My suspicion is that the Government were trying to protect the Tendering process from "local" influence and repeated attacks from friendly local politicians, in order to prevent another Mahon Point, and another Horgan's Quay for that matter (look it up).
I stand by my assertion that his intervention was grotesque by such a late intervention considering his record with it back in 98, but also that he was even allowed to ever again bid for public money after the findings of the Mahon Tribunal.0 -
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