FOR more than four years the hoardings around the Spencer Dock site on Dublin's north docklands have being promising it will be the place to live, work and socialise with pictures of young professional types living it up and generally looking pleased with their choice of address.
Finally, two years later than initially expected, the first trickle of residents are moving into the Scott Tallon Walker designed Central Square apartment blocks.
This coincides with the announcement that construction on another long awaited element of the Spencer Dock development - the €400 million National Conference Centre - is underway.
A spokesperson for the developer Treasury Holdings has confirmed that the owners of around 200 of the first phase of 600 units are in the process of closing the sale of their apartments and they say the rest will move in early next year.
However, these purchasers are buying in a very different property market that the one in which they queued to put down €5,000 deposits on in November 2002. Amid much hype and frenzy 500 apartments were sold off the plans within four days of the launch. Those who placed deposits and a further €15,000 on exchange of contracts were told the completion date would be some time in 2005.
One-bed apartments cost €290,000-€320,000, two-beds €350,000-€500,000 and three-beds €500,00-€600,000.
Treasury Holdings say that only "one or two" people have withdrawn from the sale but most are "delighted to be closing" the sale and buying at relatively attractive prices.
All around there are signs of life; Belgian financial services provider Fortis has moved in; as has PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) into its snazzy new headquarters fronting Spencer Dock.
But there is a long way to go before it becomes the "city within a city", as it was initially billed. The overall plan for the 53-acre site is for 278,709sq m (3 million sq ft) of offices, and 3,000 apartments, which would make it the biggest urban development ever seen in Ireland.
However Treasury Holdings say the timing of future phases is now dependent on determining the route of the interconnector Dart tunnel under the site - which will link Heuston station with the new station at Spencer Dock.
