THE MANAGEMENT team at the property groups formerly owned by developer Liam Carroll have set up a company to manage properties and are assessing interest among investors in the iconic building once earmarked as Anglo Irish Bank’s new head office.
David Torpey, the former managing director of the Zoe group, and John Pope, the group’s finance director, set up Property Asset Management Enhancement Services (Pames) last May.
The two businessmen are joined as directors of the firm by Noel Murray, a director of Mr Carroll’s Dunloe Ewart group, whose role in the firm is marketing director.
The company has played an active role in generating interest among investors in the completion of the shell building earmarked as the new head office of Anglo Irish Bank in North Wall Quay, Dublin which was started by Mr Carroll.
The partially built structure, which was financed with €40 million in loans from Anglo, is now under the control of the National Asset Management Agency.
The State agency has asked Mr Carroll’s former management team to assess investor interest in the completion of the development of the building. The State agency is taking a direct interest in the completion of the property.
Any management arrangement with Pames on the development of the building would have to be approved by Nama, a source familiar with the agency said.
Mr Carroll has not played any role in the running of his three property groups – Zoe, Orthanc and Dunloe Ewart – since the start of his High Court battle with ACCBank in 2009 over unpaid loans of €136 million to the Zoe group. The bank’s action eventually brought down the Zoe group, which owed its banks €1.3 billion.
The group was one of the first major casualties of the Irish property crash and banking crisis.
Mr Torpey and Mr Pope appeared regularly in court during Mr Carroll’s action with ACC.
They have worked with receivers appointed by the banks over assets of the Zoe and Orthanc groups and with Nama, which now controls most of these assets.
It is expected that Pames will manage Dunloe Ewart’s properties, which includes assets in Cherrywood, south Dublin, for Nama and the group’s other banks.
A number of parties interested in completing the incomplete building at North Wall Quay have engaged with Nama.
Among the companies interested in renting the building is US bank BNY Mellon which is looking to locate its 1,750-strong workforce based at five sites around Dublin into a new head office.
The eight-storey skeletal block has become an icon of Ireland’s economic and banking collapse.
However, the site has attracted interest from new investors as it is one of few properties in Dublin city centre of that scale on a site that can be developed further.
