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A PROTEST GROUP have occupied an unused building in Cork city, which they say was under Nama control. They now plan to turn it into a community resource centre.
The building on Oliver Plunkett Street was empty and being advertised to let. It is now planned to install a cafe, a soup kitchen, a music recording facility and space for a suicide outreach group in the premises, according to a spokesperson for protest group Cork City Centre.
A representative of the group said they gained access on Christmas day. He told TheJournal.ie:
Basically, Santa left it for us on Christmas morning. A box was found under the Christmas tree on Grand Parade, containing the key [to the building] and instructions that it was to be used for the people of Cork.
He said the building had been inhabited since then, but the occupation was only now being made public. The spokesman added that as it was under the control of Nama, the building was effectively public property and should be put to good use. “It belongs to Nama, so it belongs to us,” he said.
It was also suggested that other similar properties around the country should be used for public services. He said:
Nama properties around Ireland should certainly be looked at in terms of going into public use, even if its only temporary. At the moment they’re derelict eyesores, and very expensive derelict eyesores at that.
The spokesman said the group expected a legal challenge to their occupation, but would not put up physical resistance if an attempt was made to evict them. He stressed that the Cork City Centre group are separate from the Occupy Cork protests.
According to its website, the community centre is scheduled to open on January 23.
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Fantastic idea! Kudos to the folks involved.
Pointless!…
And what are YOU doing Jeff other than writing comments here?
I wish them every success. Anyone who believes NAMA is acting on behalf of anyone but bankers and the corrupt of our society (and others) is a deluded fool who should be disregarded as such. This is our nation, our property, not that of Anglo, Angela or any agency established by the very people who through their recklessness or corruption caused these actions to be necessary. Its taking back our own territory. Best of luck guys and well done.
I Love it!!!!!!
Power to the People!
Back once again for the renegade master!!!
D for damager
Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
I’m imagine there would be no charge for any of the services or more importantly no profits expected?
Well, if the services are free the centre is not going to last. The charges should be in keeping with the nature of each aspect of the centre, with the proceeds from the cafe and the recording space funding the soup kitchen and the suicide outreach centre. That way the centre could be sustainable and ethical.
This is a fantastic idea. I hope it spreads around the whole country. People power.
how do we know that these people aren’t a front for the developer who annoyed his building was taken off him by nama?
A builder opening a soup kitcken and suicide outreach program.
Steve don’t be such a negative c……Nellie :)
turns out i was right to doubt this story, people are misusing nama as a bogey man.
Typical Irish ‘it will never work’ attitude. Well so bloody what?! Let them at it I say. Even if the facilities never get off the ground they’ll have achieved something. Beats sitting on the sofa moaning about the state we’re in.
Excellent, hope it’s contagious!
Let’s see if the boys from the old brigade ex workers party chaps have any thing to say about this or will they utter more platitudes about fairness social justice and yet tow the line of a party that in theory they are diametrically opposed to. Labours way my arse !!! It’s continuity F F !!
Well done guys, forget occupy the cold streets. Occupy the people’s buildings.
If this property is a NAMA building then why is it not on the Properties Enforced listing? http://www.nama.ie/about-our-work/properties-enforced/terms-of-use/ I could be wrong on this but it seems to me that someone has been telling porkies or is just taking the piss.
they don’t list all buildings and sites on this list, only the ones they hope to make money on fast.
I was just going off this list so if there are any more that they possess I would be grateful for any info on where to find it. They seem to be very secretive about what they do.
Regardless of who owns the building I can’t see this occupation being a success. While the idea of opening a cafe, soup kitchen etc., is attractive there are practical problems in making it a reality. For example, I cannot see any electricity supplier making power available to a group who are, in effect, squatting on the property and even if one did there would be a very substantial monetary deposit required up front and which the group presumably do not have the resources to pay. I take it there is power in the building at the moment but I can’t see that continuing for more than a couple of days: whoever is responsible for the supply will be getting on the relevant supplier to get it disconnected.
I was just thinking the same thing, John.
Not to mention that local business’s will not be too impressed with people setting up s soup kitchen and cafe with no health audit, no fire audit, no rates paid, no insurance, no planning etc. etc. Nice idea but gone about in totally the wrong way. I have my eye on a nice penthouse in the Elysian and wouldn’t mind doing a bit of occupying myself. The thing is who is going to buy or even show an interest in a property if they show up at the door and there’s a bunch of squatters there. Imagine the estate agent trying to sell this http://www.property.ie/property-for-sale/The-Elysian—Type-W20—3-Bed-Triplex-Penthouse-The-Elysian-Cork-City-Centre-Co-Cork/441612/ if I’m thrown down on the couch watching TV and tell potential buyers that I have occupied the penthouse as I am taking up my share of NAMA property here and now. Power to the People!!!
ah briano, ur not turnin into a party pooper are ya?
Squatting works pretty well in the Netherlands, there’s never been problems with power, gas or water being shut off.
Not at all Joseph, in fact I made a submission to Your Country, Your Call that involved, amongst other things, the use of vacant NAMA buildings to host education and training courses in more local venues for people. At the moment most FAS courses in Cork are based in Cork City with a few morsels thrown out to about 3-4 regional towns. I don’t see why buildings cant be used to run more courses over a much wider area as I know some people are put off by transport difficulties and costs.
Another idea is one like this http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0830/1224303190058.html where a hotel was converted into a school. I’m going through Cork later on and there are plenty of business’s that could spring up if they got an initial help out. In this instance while these people may have good intentions they are going about things in the wrong way. They are occupying retail space that could be let out cheaply to a start-up shop under certain conditions, office space that could be used in the same way. What is going to attract a buyer for this building, a bunch of squatters occupying the building or a bunch of tenants who are operating out of the building?
NAMA resources are underused and should be better managed to my mind but only in a structured way. Otherwise we will have every idiot getting it into their heads that they can just walk into any building that they like and have the “right” to take it over.
was only messin Brian.
as always ur posts are well thought out and i concur with ur above post. More power to ya!
Send in the guards and kick a few teeth in, these crusties won’t try it on again.
two different groups, neither of them are crusties, there maybe a crossover of some members but agendas may differ.
No send in the bankers, I’d like to see them try to rough up a paper bag, never mind the people they’ve impoverished the world over while trashing the global economy & enriching themselves with impunity.
Into Kildare street nursing home ?
still looking for details of who owned the building
Bowen construction and Padlake Ltd. Padlake is dissolved and Bowen is in receivership but the building is not on the NAMA list as such. It is still in the hands of the receiver so I don’t know what the situation is there. It is a while since I did company law.
A legal nightmare by the sounds of it. If the property was held by padlake on Dissolution of that company then the ownership of that property vests in the minister of finance.
From what I can gather Bowen is in receivership and so the properties and assets that it owns are in the hands of the receiver that has been appointed by NAMA and BOI. If this is the case wouldn’t that been that NAMA is not in possession of the building as yet and that this group has gone off half cocked. For all they know a buyer who might be interested in buying the building will turn up tomorrow morning with a bunch of people illegally occupying the building. This could actually jeopardize any future sale of the building as who is going to buy a building with unwanted squatters and potentially long and messy legal actions to get them out?
thanks for doing the researching the author of this post didn’t do.
Brian
Where are you getting information on the NAMA list? The only info I can find online is the ‘namawinelake’ site.
John I have a link to it further down the page.
Thanks Brian. Got it!
Brian
I have just checked the ‘namawinelake’ list of developers who are reported to be ‘NAMA bound’ and Bowen is in there. The site points out that NAMA accords the same confidentiality as would be received from the original financial institution and as a result of this list is based on press reporting. Anyway, I attach the link here, see what you make of it.
http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/the-developers/
Nice to see occupations and strikes are back on. Vita Cortex workers, EBS workers and now this. Brilliant. It’s how we are going to get out of this mess!
Great……..Public property is now available to roaming gangs who believe that they have an entitlement to enter and use the facility as if it were there own including profit making ventures. Meanwhile the real owners are prevented from selling renting or realising any financial gains from their property due to these actions.
Why not extend this form of thuggery to large houses occupied by elderly singles as it is antisocial to be occupying too much space or better still why not target large farms and forcibly acquire around ten per cent of the lands for allotments.
Brilliant isn’t it and virtually every contributor above is reflective of this insane thuggery ………..the Gardai should baton charge them out of the building and NAMA should seek compensation from these latter day pirates
Hopefully those idiots in tents at the cork war memorial will all move in here, it will be warmer and the people of cork will get their green space back!
So can I have a free building too, or do i need to be an unofficial charity?
have your say