Work was to start this month on the £80 million-plus National Conference Centre planned for a Liffeyside site in the Docklands area. But the project has been thrown into disarray by the opposition of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and the likelihood that it will not qualify for urban renewal tax incentives.
The contract to build the centre was awarded last June to the Spencer Dock consortium consisting of developers Treasury Holdings and Mr Harry Crosbie, of the Point Theatre, subject to a costbenefit analysis satisfactory to the European Commission, which is providing £24 million in funding.
This analysis gave the project a favourable review. But although it was formally approved by the Government last month, serious problems first started to emerge in Brussels where the European Commission decided that urban renewal tax incentives could not be justified, given the healthy state of the Irish economy.
Given that the project was to be financed on the assumption that such tax incentives would be available, it became clear that the sums no longer added up. This created a crisis and caused what sources describe as "serious tension" between the Spencer Dock consortium and the DDDA.
It also delayed the finalisation of a Section 25 planning scheme for the site. This can only be made by the authority and would have taken the project out of the normal planning process, thus shortening its delivery time - essential if it is to benefit from EU aid, which must be drawn down by December 31st, 2000.
However yesterday, the developers discovered that the DDDA had lodged an objection with Dublin Corporation against their planning application for enabling works on the site, including the excavation of the "largest hole in Ireland". This was taken by the developers as further evidence of the authority's attitude.
But other sources say the DDDA encountered "extraordinary difficulties" in dealing with the Spencer Dock consortium, mainly because its plans for the extended 40-acre CIE-owned site on North Wall Quay "kept changing all the time" as the developers sought to compensate for the likely loss of tax incentives.
While the conference centre would occupy only four acres of the site, the consortium is seeking to include a range of ancillary uses on the remaining 36 acres - including two multi-storey hotels and 1.3 million square feet of high-rise offices.
One source said the scale of the development now required to underpin the conference centre, in the absence of tax incentives, is so large that it "cannot comply" with the DDDA's master plan.
It is understood the developers were told by the DDDA that it was willing to do a "stand-alone" master plan for the conference centre to expedite the project. However, the consortium's insistence that any planning scheme must include the extended site led to an impasse in the negotiations.
A spokesman for the developers blamed the DDDA, saying it was unwilling to facilitate the project under any circumstances. As a result, the consortium had applied to the corporation for permission to go ahead with the enabling works - and it was expecting a favourable decision on this application next week.
But even if permission is granted, an appeal to An Bord Pleanala cannot be ruled out and could hold up the works for a further four months. And failing agreement with the DDDA on a Section 25 planning scheme, they would have to go down the same route to get permission for the conference centre itself - leading to yet more delay.
Meetings between representatives of the consortium and the DDDA have "broken up in disarray", according to consortium sources, mainly because of the authority's insistence that a substantial sum of money - running into millions of pounds - would have to be contributed towards the cost of amenity works and social housing in the Docklands. The developers regard these demands as further evidence of the DDDA's unwillingness to facilitate the project. And given that it requires a 28-month building programme, one source close to the consortium warned that unless there was an extension of time for the EU aid, "it will not get built."
