Dublin Corporation was prepared to sell its 69-acre landholding at Quarryvale to Mr Tom Gilmartin in 1988 without going to public tender and for a price that was just over half of what he paid for it less than six months later, according to the corporation's files.
The files dealing with Quarryvale and Mr Gilmartin's plans to develop a second major shopping centre in Bachelor's Walk were made available for public inspection yesterday after city councillors criticised as inadequate a corporation report on its dealings with Mr Gilmartin.
According to a memorandum in October 1988, the corporation's chief valuer received instructions from the then deputy city manager, Mr Paddy Morrissey, to dispose of two parcels of land at Quarryvale totalling 69 acres, apparently after an approach from Mr Gilmartin.
This happened less than three weeks after senior local authority officials, the city manager, Mr Frank Feely, the county manager, Mr George Redmond, the planning manager, Mr John Prendergast, and Mr Morrissey had met the then Taoiseach, Mr Haughey.
They were summoned to the Taoiseach's office to be told by Mr Haughey, accompanied by three other ministers, Mr Padraig Flynn, Mr Ray McSharry and Mr Ray Burke, that the government wanted urgent steps taken to boost the construction industry.
After an "open and frank" discussion lasting 90 minutes, with no officials present on the Government side, Mr Flynn said there was a real prospect of major private-sector investment in Dublin and he was talking to a number of developers with significant projects in mind.
Leinster House records show Mr Flynn had already met Mr Gilmartin and was to meet him on at least four other occasions in 1989. He would have been made aware of the Luton-based developer's plans both for Bachelor's Walk, in the city centre, and Quarryvale in west Co Dublin.
Dublin Corporation's files on the Quarryvale transaction show the only reason it did not sell its 69 acres to Mr Gilmartin without advertising it for sale by public tender was that a rival developer, the Green Property Company, had also expressed interest. Mr John Corcoran, Green's managing director, had become aware of Mr Gilmartin's plans for a large shopping centre at Quarryvale, strategically located at the junction of the N4 and M50, and was concerned about its impact on Green's plans for Blanchardstown.
Green had planning permission to develop the town centre, including 750,000 square feet of retail space, twice as much as originally planned. The last thing it wanted was a rival shopping centre, more than twice the size again at 1.5 million square feet, to be developed a few miles away.
Mr Corcoran, in a March 1989 letter to the corporation, said Green would be interested in acquiring its landholding at Quarryvale with a view to developing it for industry. This expression of interest by Green had "complicated" the disposal issue, another memo noted.
Accordingly, the corporation decided to sell the 69 acres by public tender in April 1989. Two tenders were received, one for £5.1 million from Mr Gilmartin and the other from Windar Ltd, a wholly-owned Green Property subsidiary, for £4.4 million.
The chief valuer recommended acceptance of Mr Gilmartin's tender as it was "considerably in excess" of Green's offer. He also discounted Green's preparedness to pay an extra £7 million, £11.4 million in total, if the land was rezoned for shopping.
Since this was a matter for Dublin County Council, the corporation was "unable to guarantee" such a rezoning and, therefore, Green's higher offer was deemed invalid. Another memorandum notes that Mr Gilmartin said he would "take his chance" on getting it rezoned.
A contract of sale, for £5.1 million, was signed by both sides in May 1989. Mr Gilmartin paid a deposit of £510,000 and the corporation received the balance of £4.59 million in February 1990. There was a dispute about whether he also owed interest of £404,000.
The files contain a lengthy exchange of correspondence and legal papers regarding the corporation's attempts to secure this money, including threatened High Court proceedings, but it was eventually decided not to pursue the case as it was unlikely to be recovered.
The principal file on Quarryvale also includes a cutting from The Irish Times, dated June 10th, 1991, which reported that Mr Pat Rabbitte TD (Labour, Dublin South West) had called for a Dail inquiry into the sale of the Quarry vale site to the Luton-based developer. Throughout, the corporation was aware of Mr Gilmartin's plans for the shopping centre at Quarryvale, with a potentially damaging impact on the city centre, but there is nothing on file to indicate that senior officials entertained reservations about the sale.
Simultaneously, the corporation was involved in a separate round of meetings with Mr Gilmartin about his plans for Bachelor's Walk. These started in mid-1988 and were later broadened to include CIE, which was interested in developing a bus station in the area.
Mr Gilmartin's company, Arlington Securities (later acquired by British Aerospace), merged its plans with those of CIE to propose a huge shopping centre on Bachelor's Walk and Lower Ormond Quay, with parking for 1,400 cars at basement level and a bus station on the roof.
It is clear from the files that the corporation's senior professionals, Mr Gay McCarron, then chief planning officer, and Mr Chris Dardis, then city architect, had major reservations about the scheme, mainly because it would result in the demolition of every existing building on the site.
A letter from Mr Dardis describes Arlington's scheme as similar to the type of development which "wrecked the hearts of English cities like Sheffield and Birmingham". He also made a plea for the preservation of the buildings along the south side of Middle Abbey Street.
The planning manager, Mr Prendergast, conceded that the scheme as proposed would create serious "civic design problems" not least because of the huge ramps that would be required at the Jervis Street end of the site to convey double-deck buses to the roof-level bus station.
The file also includes references to what conservationists dubbed at the time "a domino demolition" of two important early 18th century houses at Nos 5 and 6 Bachelor's Walk, on foot of dangerous buildings orders issued by Mr Dardis after one was damaged by fire.
Ultimately, the Bachelor's Walk site was purchased by Zoe Developments for an apartment-based scheme. The 180-acre site at Quarryvale has been developed by Mr Owen O'Callaghan, a former partner of Mr Gilmartin, as the Liffey Valley shopping centre.
