IDA's 'phone a friend' hope for selling Quinn building

The IDA's proposal to get a tenant for the vacant 83,000sq ft Quinn Insurance building in Navan by contacting Meath people in influential business positions has been slammed as the equivalent of "phone a friend". Navan Town Council received a letter from the IDA on 18th August last in response to a query sent to it by Navan town clerk Shane Donnelly about the future of the state-of-the-art building, which was emptied of staff in June when they were redeployed to other centres as part of the restructuring of the Quinn Group's insurance operations. The letter from IDA eastern region manager Conor Agnew states: "In my view, we must be realistic in accepting that not every prospective investor in the Financial/International Services Sector in Ireland is seeking an 83,000sq ft facility in a large provincial town... "With this in mind, I expressed the view to Henry Brennan (the new Economic Development Manager at Meath County Council) that the search for a new occupier should be broadened beyond the agencies (IDA and Enterprise Ireland) and estate agents CBRE (who are advertising the building)." Mr Agnew goes on the suggest that county and town councils, chambers of commerce and other advocates for the county should identify Meath natives "occupying senior management positions in financial or insurance companies in Ireland" and should look further afield "by engagement with Meath natives/diaspora occupying senior positions in major internationals that might have a current presence in the IFSC or as yet no operating presence in Ireland." The letter read out to councillors at the September meeting of Navan Town Council was later slammed by Cllr Shane Cassells who said: "This really brings a new meaning to the term 'phone a friend'." He said: "Basically, the IDA strategy appears to be resting on the hope that one of us has a distant relative in America that is the CEO of a blue chip company and ask him to come to Navan." Cllr Cassells said he had called for a "strong, focused approach on Navan from the IDA and other government agencies in order to address the void left by the departure of the flagship Quinn Insurance business from the business park". He went on: "It is, in effect, the Obama/Moneygall scenario working in reverse. It is, quite frankly, a terrible response and I am calling on our three TDs to shake these guys up and make this a priority for government now. "What are we waiting for? Will there only be an interest shown in Navan by the IDA and our TDs if Tara Mines shuts down and then a task force will arrive into town for the sake of the RTÉ cameras? It is not good enough. We have heard a lot of talk about job creation and now it is time to deliver. "The statistics published at the weekend show Meath fourth in the list when it comes to those availing of Mortgage Interest Supplement relief and this gives a stark indicator as to the problems being faced by our people. We need big responses," he said. At last week's meeting, Cllr Cassells proposed that the Oireachtas Committee for Jobs, which is chaired by Damien English, TD, be requested to come to Navan along with all of the TDs for Meath West and the IDA to work on a strategy for the town. Also at the September meeting, Cllr Joe Reilly said that the building could be used by a number of companies. "It's a modern building and it could be done in such a way as to divide the levels in the building so it doesn't have to be a huge company taking it all over; it can be subdivided," he said. Even though the building was designed for around 700 workers, Quinn Insurance never occupied more than a minority portion of the builidng with a maximum of around 180 workers at any one time. CB Richard Ellis, the estate agent advertising the property, is looking for €8.5 million, which is thought to have cost over €20m to build and fit out. The block stands on a site of 3.24 hectares (eight acres) and the fit-out includes chilled-beam air conditioning, Cat 6 cabling, fully equipped kitchen and canteen and a mixture of open plan offices and meeting rooms to accommodate a staff of 714 with 539 parking spaces. CB Richard Ellis recently was quoted as saying that, if a buyer is not found, it will consider leasing the building at a rent of €140 per sq m (€13 per sq ft).