Treasury Holdings is facing one of the sternest tests yet of its reputation for getting things done. Early next year, it will begin laying plans for Battersea Power Station in London, the site it bought last year for the guts of €600 million.
There's no doubt that the Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan-owned property player is not afraid to think big and take risks. But, even by their standards, Battersea is both big and risky. The power station and its distinctive four chimneys loom over the south bank of the Thames. The coal-burning plant was built in the 1930s and is seen as a symbol of Britain's industrial past.
Bands such as Pink Floyd and the Prodigy have used its image, helping to cement its iconic status. The building is listed, but has lain idle since 1983, threatening to become a symbol of dereliction.
Treasury Ireland's managing director John Bruder says that, along with local residents and Wandsworth planning authority, London's mayor Ken Livingstone is likely to take a keen interest in the Irish developer's plans for the building.
The group bought Battersea a year ago and Bruder says it held a beauty parade of some of the architectural world's biggest names last spring. The winner was Raphael Vinoly. He has designed buildings in the US, Japan and Europe, and works across the commercial, civil and cultural, building everything from performing arts complexes to conference centres.
Treasury is planning a mixed development for Battersea and its surrounding site that will include a shopping centre, possibly a hotel, residential and other uses.
Battersea has trumped a number of developers over the last two decades, including Seán Mulryan's Ballymore Properties, which paid previous owner Oriental Property for a share of the site two years ago. They parted company in a row over the number of apartments needed to ensure the viability of any redevelopment.
Bruder says the group is happy to maintain the building and predicts that its plan will be unveiled early in the New Year.
Treasury more or less stumbled on Battersea. Bruder says that Barrett heard at a dinner party in China that Oriental Property, the vehicle controlled by Hong Kong businessman Victor Hwang, which was the site's owner through local company, Parkview, was willing to sell. Barrett indicated the Irish group might be willing to buy and a deal was subsequently done. The Irish group this week cemented its status as an international player with a reorganisation. Bruder takes over as managing director of Treasury Ireland, which has been the main platform for its growth, along with listed vehicle Real Estate Opportunities.
Robert Tincknell will become managing director of the group's UK and international divisions in the new year. Richard David joins from Macquarie Bank as head of its China operations. China has been a big focus for Treasury for several years, and Barrett is now based out there on a near-permanent basis. The group has interests in Shanghai and Beijing.
Closer to home, the group is charged with designing, financing, building and operating the National Conference Centre on Dublin's Spencer Dock. The deal took several years and three competitions, Bruder says. "We won it more than once," he points out.
The architect, Irish expat Kevin Roche, who has a big reputation in the US, has been hired, and Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre company has already begun selling the building, which will open in 2010. "It's flying," Bruder says.
Treasury is talking to planners about one of its long-standing properties, Stillorgan shopping centre on Dublin's southside. The combined centre, cinema, bowling alley and village are spread out and an exercise in "bad town planning", to Bruder's mind. Councillors with local authority Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have just voted in a new local area plan, with which Treasury is "reasonably happy".
