A round-up of news.
Horsey set hightails it to An Bord Pleanala
RACEHORSE trainer Aidan O'Brien and other prominent members of the horse racing set are not taking any chances over a decision by South Tipperary County Council to refuse planning permission for an animal waste plant at Castleblake, Co Tipperary.
While they have welcomed the council's decision, they say it doesn't go far enough in its reasons for refusal, and they are taking the extra precaution of making appeals to An Bord Pleanála.
The proposed plant by Green Organics Energy Ltd (GOE) would be located at Castleblake, near Rosegreen, between Cashel and Clonmel, near John Magnier's Coolmore Stud and Aidan O'Brien's stables at Ballydoyle. Among the many luminaries of the horse racing world to write to the board are trainer Edward J O'Grady, Coolmore Stud manager Christy Grassick, breeder Albert Sherwood, equine vet John Halley, Ashtown House Stud, Brittas House Stud and An Taisce.
South Tipperary County Council turned down the proposal because it said the factory, which would have processed 250,000 tonnes of animal byproducts a year, was too big for a rural location, and would give rise to an "unsustainable" level of traffic to and from the plant.
However, in his appeal, Aidan O'Brien said the ruling "omitted many essential and vital points we raised in our objection letters", including the impact on the local community and the equine industry from gas emissions and the risk of water contamination.
GOE is a consortium which includes Dawn Meats, Bioverda, a subsidiary of National Toll Roads, and National Byproducts, owned by the Ronan family, which operated a plant on the site for more than 40 years. It submitted a first party appeal to the planning board and says the project is being developed to find a commercially viable solution to a problem for the meat industry "providing a secure, viable and environmentally sustainable outlet for the management of animal by-products".
Heritage and development - Dun Laoghaire points the way
'WOULD Dublin be a better place without Sorrento Terrace?" is the slightly alarming headline of a press release from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Neil Jordan et al can relax, however. This is not a move by council officials to CPO the terrace to make way for a high-rise luxury apartment complex.
The aim of the headline is to stir up interest in a "planning and design for heritage and development" conference being held on October 11th in the Royal Marine Hotel.
Tim Carey, heritage officer of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, says that given its picturesque location on the coast, you would never get a big planning permission for a terrace of houses like Sorrento Terrace now. "Now developers would try and get 17-storey apartment blocks that wouldn't be half as attractive," he says. He's not anti-development. In fact, he says he's tired of hearing both extremes of the debate "with developers seeing heritage as an obstacle and a way of losing money and heritage people seeing any type of new development as bad.
"It isn't always black and white or either/or," says Carey, who says safeguarding our heritage and developing property for commercial reasons do not have to be conflicting objectives and hopes the conference will help move the debate on.
He says, as an island nation we sometimes focus in on ourselves "and need another perspective". The conference will hightlight developments like the successful hilltop project in southern Italy by Swedish-Italian tycoon Daniele Kihlgren which manages to both conserve buildings and make money, and a listed building in Barcelona which "was significantly altered but works very well".
Bono embraces architect and architecture
THOSE of us who regularly attend architecture lectures are used to sitting in quiet rooms in academic institutions listening to serious discussions about design. So it was a surprise to find that Japanese architect Tadao Ando's lecture was a sell-out gig. The venue was moved to the RDS because of the run on tickets and all 3,000 wanabee attendees were accommodated - and that was before anyone knew that Bono would be there.
The clues about Ando's star-attracting abilities began when he spoke before the lecture about how he had been in France the day before and had been visited by architect Jean Nouvel, Sean Scully and Norman Foster, who had flown in on his private jet to see him.
But most of the discussion was about chats between Ando and Bono at the Clarence Hotel the previous evening; about how they would save the world with tree planting and other sustainability drives, as well as good design. With much, "I said to Bono and Bono said to me".
Before the lecture, in which Bono introduced the "world heavyweight champion of concrete", Ando said that he was humbled to be introduced by the most famous man in the world.
After the lecture some of the party repaired to said Clarence which hosted a vast dinner party - some getting there in a Maserati and Merc that had been left running outside the venue (eco-friendly anyone?).
A wonderful evening was had by all, including Louis le Brocquy and Guggi. Bono and Ando chatted into the night while assembled architects seemed astonished that their profession had suddenly become involved in a star-studded day and evening.
But Bono has a knack for tapping into the zeitgeist and once he's there people want to be a part of it. So it's great that he's promoting architecture, and he will hopefully court home-grown designers as well as those from abroad.
Financial services division of Savills goes on the hunt
SAVILLS Private Finance (SPF) - a specialist financial services division of Savills launched in the UK in 1997 - has faith that there's plenty of business to go after in the Irish market, both north and south.
It wants to open up here and is in talks with a number of companies about a possible acquisition.
Mike Boles, director of its international division, says "Savills' acquisition of Hamilton Osborne King gives us a platform to work from and we still think the mortgage market has got further to develop. Finding the right company to buy is, of course, never easy."
Savills Private Finance deals with busy successful clients who want advice on large, often complex mortgage arrangements.
Penny finally drops at OPW on how to make money
EVEN though it manages the country's largest property portfolio, the Office of Public Works is only now starting to rethink its strategy.
In the old days, it would have put a building on the market and taken the highest offer on the table. But after watching commercial property values rise by 226 per cent in the past decade, the state agency is finally taking a new direction with the redevelopment of the notorious Hawkins House office block behind Burgh Quay which it will own jointly with Garrett Kelleher's Shelbourne Developments. Only three years ago Kelleher bought the Department of Justice headquarters on St Stephen's Green for just over €52 million.
The refurbishment is reputed to have cost around €40 million, bringing Kelleher's overall expenditure to little more than €90 million. And today's value? Jones Lang LaSalle has been seeking a mere €180 million for the former eyesore.
Unsurprisingly, the Office of Public Works has no reservations about its sale of the former UCD Veterinary College site in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 to Ray Grehan for a knockout price of €171.5 million just before Christmas, 2005. But it is for some reason less eager to talk about the 1995 sale of 13 Georgian houses opposite Government Buildings on Merrion Street, including the Merrion Hotel. That sale yielded - wait for it - less than €5 million after costs for the State coffers.
On the move
WATERFORD'S John Rohan and Sherry FitzGerald have announced their plans to team up.
A significant player in the Waterford area, John Rohan has operated in the city for 28 years. He will continue to trade as John Rohan Auctioneers until early 2008 when the new partnership will re-brand. Sherry FitzGerald John Rohan will at that stage be trading from new premises on the Cork Road.
It is anticipated that John Rohan will work closely with DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, the group's commercial agency specialists. This move brings to 110 the number of Sherry FitzGerald offices around the country.
Philip Byrne has joined Coonan Real Estate Alliance of Maynooth and Celbridge. He has been appointed a director of the company's estate agency practice. He previously worked with Raymond Potterton Auctioneers in Navan.
Meanwhile, McNally Handy has announced that James Dunphy has been made associate director at the company.
Also at McNally Handy, Allen Morgan, formerly strategic property advisor with the Office of Public Works, has joined the company as head of professional services.
