News: February 2008 Archives

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February 29, 2008

Dublin split over the U2 Tower

Dubliners like a good debate and a recent hot topic of discussion has been the U2 Tower, the development in the city's docks area that has earned its nickname through the involvement of Bono and other members of the Irish rock band.

Paul Shearer, Times Online

Prices have been falling across most of Ireland, but in the capital developers have not lost their appetite for looking skywards. Dublin, the argument runs, is suffering from urban sprawl. Traffic is clogging up and polluting the city and surrounding suburbs. The city council says that it has been losing tax revenue as business park and retail developments have been built outside the city. So the developers' solution is to build tall in the city centre - a decision that has caused considerable local controversy, as similar schemes have done in London.

Last October Geranger, a consortium consisting of Ballymore Properties, Patrick McKillen and August Partners (representing U2 band members and management), were selected by the docklands authority as provisional preferred bidders for the U2 Tower, which will have a recording studio for the band at the top. Foster & Partners, the consortium's architects, have proposed a 130m (430 ft) mixed-use tower on the landmark site at the meeting point of the River Liffey, the River Dodder and the Grand Canal. This scheme replaced a proposal for a 60m tower; some were annoyed that the first scheme was so unceremoniously dropped in favour of the Foster design. On the other side of the river, another 100m-plus structure is planned, the Point Village Watchtower, which will combine with the Foster tower to create a gateway.

Geranger hopes to achieve preferred bidder status in the near future, once it has submitted more detailed plans that should clarify the height of the building and the status of the U2 studio, a suspended egg-shaped pod. A spokeswoman for Ballymore said that the consortium is anticipating starting work on the building within the next 12 months. But there are those who do not see this as a positive development.

Ian Lumley, of An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, says: “We were very happy with the original 60m proposal and don't see the need for these megalomaniac schemes. The previous plan was very harmonious and these new proposals threaten to undermine the good relations that have been built up in the area between residents and developers.” The trust's view is that developers overpaid for the land and are trying to recoup the cost by building higher. It queries whether the U2 Tower scheme has had a proper environmental impact assessment.

Dublin City Council recently published a consultation document, Maximising the City's Potential, which addresses the issue: “High buildings have a part to play as ... high-density clusters with significant capacity to promote urban regeneration and increase Dublin's competitive edge.”

An Taisce has plans to table a strongly worded objection. “These proposals threaten to destroy one of the last great low-rise European city centres,” Lumley says.

The trend for high-rise is not confined to the historic centre of Dublin. In June last year the developer Sean Dunne submitted plans for the seven-acre Jurys Berkeley Court site in the smart neighbourhood of Ballsbridge. These included a 37-storey, 132m tower as the centrepiece: its architect, Ulrik Raysse, described it as “cut like a diamond”. The plans, however, cut no ice with planners: after vociferous local opposition, they requested further details from the developer. These were submitted in January; the council is due to reply by next week.

Fact file

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority, established in 1999, has its own special planning zone, and it has not been reluctant to flex its planning muscle to bring internationally renowned architects to the regeneration project of the docks. The Irish architect Kevin Roche is building a €400 million (£301 million) convention centre, Studio Libeskind is building a 2,000-seat theatre, and there will be a five-star hotel designed by the architect Manuel Aires Mateus. Other reputed architects have been building bridges across the dock - the Catalan designer Santiago Calatrava is working on the delightfully named Samuel Beckett Bridge.

The Numbers

Stamp duty in Ireland was reformed last year. Seven rates were replaced with two: a 7 per cent levy on properties from €125,000 (£94,000) to €1million, and a 9 per cent rate above €1million.

The average price for a two-bed flat in Co Dublin is €405,986, down 1.96 per cent in the last quarter of 2007. The average three-bed semi is €512,657, down 1.13 per cent (www.myhome.ie ).

The number of new-build homes in Ireland is set to fall by almost a third, from nearly 90,000 in 2007 to 50,000-60,000 in 2008 (www.lisney.com ).

Posted by Jonathan at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Bono's Dublin Hotel Plan Pits Rocker Against Preservationists

By Dara Doyle

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U2's Bono helped persuade George W. Bush and Tony Blair to increase African aid and cancel a portion of Third World debt. Ireland's most famous rock star is finding it harder to charm Dublin preservationists as he seeks to expand the 177-year-old Clarence Hotel.

The singer failed to win over opponents with several bottles of wine and lunch at the Clarence in September, said Michael Smith, former chairman of An Taisce, an independent planning watchdog. The 150 million-euro ($220 million) project would triple the hotel's size and top it with a panoramic glass bar.

"The Clarence demolition is an old-fashioned money-driven, anti-environmental exploit," said Smith, 42, who attended the lunch. "Bono is behaving like just another private-jet-addicted property speculator feeding on Ireland's greedy zeitgeist."

It's the latest controversy to entangle the U2 front man, who has worked with governments and corporations to fight AIDS and reduce poverty. Members of the Irish parliament criticized U2 for moving its music publishing company to the Netherlands to avoid taxes in 2006. The band is also behind a new skyscraper called the U2 Tower, which some neighbors call an eyesore.

Bono, whose name at birth was Paul Hewson, bought the 49- room hotel in 1993 with U2 guitarist David Evans, better known as The Edge. The renovation involves tearing down four adjacent Georgian buildings, gutting the hotel and expanding it to 140 rooms.

`Discredited' Design

While critics liken the sky bar to landing a spaceship atop the Clarence, manager Oliver Sevestre said the project was approved in part because it would make the hotel a landmark in Dublin's Temple Bar district. The plans were developed by British architect Norman Foster, perhaps best known for the gherkin- shaped London tower he designed for Swiss Reinsurance Co.

"It's a great asset to sell Dublin and the country," Sevestre said during an interview in the Clarence's 2,700-euro-a- night penthouse suite.

Located on the River Liffey and enclosed by fragments of Dublin's 12th century city walls, Temple Bar is filled with art galleries and pubs.

Foster's architects say preserving the exteriors and salvaging the original fireplaces, windows and doors will retain the essence of the Clarence. That was rejected by the Dublin City Council's conservation architect, Clare Hogan, who called the plan to keep the exteriors alone a "discredited and meaningless" act of historical preservation.

Clinton's Hotel

Nonetheless, city officials approved Foster's plan in November, saying the hotel facelift would help Dublin's economy and therefore justify tearing down protected buildings.

Though the Clarence has attracted guests such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, it may not have been the band mates' wisest investment.

While the hotel made an operating profit of 148,800 euros in 2006, investors wrote off 9.04 million euros of loans that year, accounts filed in Dublin show. In 2005, the hotel reported a loss of 575,000 euros. The renovation plan is also backed by Clarence investors Paddy McKillen and Derek Quinlan, two Dublin property developers.

"I would say we are making sense financially," Sevestre said. "It is difficult to make more sense financially because the size of the hotel means we can't maximize the price that we charge each night."

It's that pursuit of profit that has left U2 open to criticism. The band is also backing a 120-meter (394-foot) tower in the Dublin's docklands. The U2 Tower, to be completed in 2011, would be the city's tallest building.

"Taken together, these are two egomaniacal projects," said Ian Lumley, a spokesman for An Taisce.

Art Vs. Commerce

Some back Bono and Foster's vision for the hotel.

Conor Martin, who controls the Purty Loft bar opposite the hotel, withdrew his opposition after he was persuaded the project would benefit the city.

"It is a poor reflection on Dublin and the rest of the country if we turn it down," he said in a letter to city officials.

Bono, who wasn't available for an interview, has said there's no conflict between his activism and investments.

"I long since grew out of the idea that artists good, businessmen bad," Bono said Jan. 24 at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. "I got over that one when I was 22."

Smith is taking the Clarence fight to the planning appeals board, which is expected to issue a decision within four months.

Seasoned Campaigner

He is a tenacious opponent. In 1995, angered by what he said was the cozy relationship between politicians and developers, Smith placed a newspaper ad offering a 10,000 Irish-punt ($18,579) reward for information leading to corruption convictions.

Though the reward was never paid, the campaign triggered a 10-year probe of bribery allegations, leading to the current investigation of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's finances. Ahern denies any wrongdoing.

Even after lunch with his "perfectly gracious" host, Smith is carrying on the fight against a man who once gave Pope John Paul II a pair of wraparound sunglasses.

"If assessed for good old-fashioned rock star glamour, this proposal is a success," Smith said in his written appeal against the project. "Unfortunately for the owners, the Clarence is not a pair of sunglasses."

Posted by Jonathan at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

U2 Hits The Studio In Dublin

Jonathan Cohen, Billboard

U2 has hit the studio in Dublin to continue work on its next studio album with longtime collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. "We're going to try and break new sonic ground and deliver a masterpiece," Lanois tells Billboard.com. "The sleeves are rolled up. Bono is all charged up with a lyrical angle."

As previously reported, U2, Eno and Lanois have spent time working on new material on three prior occasions in France and Morocco, and Lanois confirms the results are prolific.

"There's so much material," he says, referring to speculation that the sessions could yield two new albums. "When you get Eno and I and those guys in the room, before lunch there's like eight things."

"We've had some exciting beginnings via jam sessions," he continues. "Now we will pick our favorite beginnings and say, 'OK, that's a lovely springboard. Now what are we trying to say?' The springboards are sometimes melodic, sometimes riff-based, but I can assure you they are exciting."

There's no date yet for the project, which will be the follow-up to 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

In other U2 news, the group has contributed to a new charity single, "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew," proceeds from which will benefit the cancer-stricken Irish artist of the same name. The track will be available in Ireland only as a download beginning Friday (Feb. 22) and week later on CD.

In addition to U2, "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" features appearances by the Pogues' Shane MacGowan, the Frames' Glen Hansard, Sinead O'Connor, Andrea Corr, Damien Dempsey, Ronan Keating, Chris de Burgh, Gavin Friday and members of the Dubliners.

Posted by Jonathan at 01:44 AM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2008

Bono-sponsored art auction raises 42.5 million dollars for AIDS

NEW YORK (AFP) - An art auction conceived by U2 frontman and campaigner Bono together with British artist Damien Hirst raised 42.5 million dollars in New York late Thursday for UN-backed health programs in Africa.

The auction, which drew Hollywood celebrities, supermodels and rock stars, was described as the largest charity event ever mounted and would help keep thousands of AIDS patients on antiretroviral drugs for years to come.

Artists such as Georg Baselitz, Howard Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, Anish Kapoor and Jeff Koons contributed works for the red-themed Valentine's Day sale, which raised far more than the upper pre-sale estimate of 29 million dollars.

Proceeds from the sale, organized by Bono's charity organization (RED), were to go directly to the United Nations Foundation to support HIV/AIDS relief programs run by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"I have watched people dying for lack of these pills," Bono said after the sale. "I actually can't quantify how many people that will keep alive.

"It's not just the money we made tonight, it's the excitement around the issue," he added.

Auctioneer Oliver Barker described the evening as "the most extraordinary sale... It was just extraordinary. We are completely thrilled," he said.

Several artworks went for three or four times their upper estimates, with several lots sparking frenzied bidding. Among the buyers was supermodel Christy Turlington, who attended the auction with her husband, actor Ed Burns.

Others in the audience included Tennis legend John McEnroe, supermodel Helena Christensen and Hollywood actor and director Dennis Hopper.

Hirst put seven artworks into the sale, which sold for more than 19 million dollars in total.

Among the auction highlights were his "Where there's a will..." which sold for 7.1 million dollars and his "All You Need Is Love," a red heart-shaped butterfly painting, which fetched 2.4 million dollars.

Jeff Koons's "Balloon Rabbit Wall Relief (RED)," sold for just over two million dollars, while records were set for 17 artists including enigmatic British graffiti artist Banksy.

Thursday's auction brought funds raised by Bono's (RED) organization since it was started last year to more than 100 million dollars.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:33 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

Bono, Rice among those who remember Lantos as a force for freedom

Watch Bono's speech and song

By Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, was remembered at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday as a humanitarian who fought for the dispossessed worldwide.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Lantos, a Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "the epitome of a true American hero."

Rock star Bono, a friend who'd worked with Lantos on issues including HIV/AIDS prevention, led the hundreds of House members and senators present in a chorus of the Beatles' "All You Need is Love."

Rice and Bono were among a string of luminaries, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who delivered tributes in Statuary Hall.

Lantos' daughter Katrina Swett, is a Democratic activist in New Hampshire. Her husband, Dick Swett, represented the state in Congress.

"For Tom, freedom was not just an abstract ideal," Rice said.

"I can see him look at us with those piercing yet compassionate eyes and say, 'All right, you can pause for a moment to remember me, but then you must resume the struggle,'" she said.

A native of Budapest, Lantos escaped Nazi labor camps as a teenager before coming to the United States.

He was 80 and serving his 14th term representing a northern California district when he died Monday. He'd disclosed in January that he'd been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

During his congressional career Lantos advocated for human rights in Sudan, Myanmar, China and elsewhere with a unique moral authority that earned him bipartisan respect.

In 2006 he was arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy protesting the killings in Darfur. Last year he called a hearing where he denounced Yahoo Inc. executives as "moral pygmies" for their involvement in China's jailing of a dissident.

"I saw him speak truth to power, to presidents, prime ministers and kings," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Lantos' childhood sweetheart and wife of nearly six decades, Annette, his two daughters and two of his 17 grandchildren also spoke.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:25 AM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2008

Bottom Line for (Red)

The "Red" campaign launched a year ago by rock star Bono has generated more than $22 million to fight H.I.V. and AIDS in Rwanda, but critics say not enough money is getting to clinics.

By Ron Nixon, The New York Times

KIGALI, Rwanda - A year ago, staff members at the Treatment and Research AIDS Center could barely cope. Patients, unable to find care elsewhere, flowed in from every corner of the country. And if one of them was fortunate enough to find a bed here, she often had to share it.

At the Treatment and Research AIDS Center in Kigali, doctors now have more time for patients, in part because of Red money.

Today, a dozen patients, mostly women, sit in neat waiting rooms, laughing and talking as children play around them. Doctors greet one another as they make their rounds, and take all the time they need to explain the complicated schedule H.I.V. drugs require.

According to the center’s managing director, Dr. Anita Asiimwe, doctors spend less time on crises and more time researching how to slow H.I.V. transmission in this tiny African nation, still recovering from a genocide in 1994.

Dr. Asiimwe thanks an unlikely benefactor for all these improvements: the American shopper.

Just over a year ago, the rock star Bono started Red, a campaign that combined consumerism and altruism. Since then, consumers have generated more than $22 million to fight H.I.V. and AIDS in Rwanda by buying iPods, T-shirts, watches, cologne and most recently — as anyone who watched the Super Bowl knows — laptops, with all of them branded “(Product)RED.”

According to Rwandan officials, Red contributions have built 33 testing and treatment centers, supplied medicine for more than 6,000 women to keep them from transmitting H.I.V. to their babies, and financed counseling and testing for thousands more patients.

Yet detractors say Red has fallen short. They criticize a lack of transparency at the company and its partners over how much they make from Red products, and whether they spend more money on Africa or advertising.

“Look at all the promotions they’ve put out,” said Inger L. Stole, a communications professor at the University of Illinois. “The ads seem to be more about promoting the companies and how good they are than the issue of AIDS.”

In the Super Bowl ad Sunday, which promoted Dell’s recent Red debut, a man buys a Red laptop and finds himself cheered in the street by strangers and kissed by a beautiful woman. At the end of the commercial, three screens flash in rapid succession: “Buy Dell. Join (RED). Save Lives.”

In its March 2007 issue, Advertising Age magazine reported that Red companies had collectively spent as much as $100 million in advertising and raised only $18 million. Officials of the campaign said then that the companies had spent $50 million on advertising and that the amount raised was $25 million. Advertising Age stood by its article.

The Red campaign itself does not advertise, said Susan Smith Ellis, the chief executive. Instead, companies pay Red a licensing fee to label one or more of their products “(RED).” Then, they pay a portion of sales from those products to the Global Fund, a public-private charity set up six years ago to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. The fund sends the money to three countries — Rwanda, Ghana and Swaziland — to help women and children infected with H.I.V. and to educate those who are uninfected in how to stay that way.

The percentage of profit that goes to the fund depends on the item and the company. For instance, 1 percent of all spending on American Express’s Red cards goes to the fund, as do 50 percent of net profits from the sale of Gap Red items and $8.50 from each sale of a Motorola Red Motorazr.

In return, the companies can market themselves as socially conscious and, ideally, increase sales. (Neither Red nor the companies would disclose revenue or total contributions by company or product.)

According to a 2006 poll by Cone Inc., a marketing agency in Boston, 89 percent of Americans between 13 and 25 would switch from one brand to another associated with a “good cause,” if products and prices were comparable.

Over all, more than $59 million has been contributed by Red and its corporate partners to the Global Fund. Red-financed projects have helped put more than 30,000 people on antiretroviral treatment and provided more than 300,000 H.I.V.-positive pregnant women with counseling and treatment, according to data from Red and the fund.

Red and its donors have contributed nearly all the corporate money that has gone to the fund, which had $2.4 billion in 2007. This made Red the 15th-largest donor — more than Russia has given so far, and more than China, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland have pledged.

Officials at Gap and Hallmark Cards say the two companies financed African H.I.V. programs even before joining Red.

All told, Red’s contributions make up less than 2 percent of the Global Fund’s total. And the money from Red does not increase funding for the Global Fund programs it is directed to; instead, it allows the fund to shift money to other programs. Red’s contributions also do not necessarily go to the countries hardest hit by H.I.V. and AIDS; they go only to programs with proven success records.

Christoph Benn, an official at the Global Fund, said Red contributions allowed the fund to divert money to programs in 136 other countries and to increase its visibility.

Marketing centered on social causes is not new. American Express began the first “cause marketing” campaign in 1983, for the Statue of Liberty restoration project. Donating a penny to the project for every cardholder purchase, the company raised $1.7 million. American Express card use increased 27 percent, and card applications rose 45 percent.

Other companies were quick to follow suit.

But Red has taken the merger of marketing and philanthropy to new levels, becoming one of the largest consumer-based income-generating initiatives by the private sector for an international humanitarian cause.

The Red co-founder Bobby Shriver, a nephew of John F. Kennedy, said Red was an extension of his efforts to address financial and health problems in Africa. Bono and Mr. Shriver also founded Debt AIDS Trade Africa, known as DATA, an organization that lobbies for debt relief as well as AIDS funds.

When the two men decided to tackle H.I.V. and AIDS and the dearth of access to antiretroviral drugs, they wanted to take a different approach to raising funds.

“I hate begging for money,” Mr. Shriver said. “In most cases when you go and ask for a corporate donation, they’ll cut you a check and that’s it. We wanted something that was more sustainable.”

But that argument has not impressed some activists and bloggers, who say the primary beneficiaries of cause-marketing campaigns are businesses.

Ben Davis of San Francisco, who created a Red parody online that says “Buy(Less),” is encouraging consumers to give more directly to nonprofits that support AIDS programs in Africa.

“I just think that increased consumption in America can’t be the only way to solve Africa’s problem,” Mr. Davis said.

Mark H. Rosenman, a professor of public service at Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, noted a more basic objection to Red and cause marketing.

“There is a broadening concern that business marketing is taking on the patina of philanthropy and crowding out philanthropic activity and even substituting for it,” he said.

Indeed, according to a survey by the Conference Board, a business research organization, business leaders are increasingly aligning their giving with business needs. In a 2007 survey of companies, 77 percent said that this was the most critical factor affecting their giving.

Brook K. Baker, a Northeastern University professor and chairman of Health GAP, a network of nonprofit groups seeking greater H.I.V. and AIDS funding, says that is the problem. “Do we really want something as important as H.I.V.-AIDS to be funded by holiday shoppers?” he asked.

In an interview in Rwanda, Tamsin Smith, president of Red, said such criticism missed the point. “We’re not encouraging people to buy more, but if they’re going to buy a pair of Armani sunglasses, we’re trying to get a cut of that for a good cause,” she said.

Ms. Smith, who formerly led Gap’s government affairs department, also takes issue with those who criticize Red advertising.

“Red is not a charity; it’s a business,” she said.

At the Treatment and Research AIDS Center in Kigali, Dr. Asiimwe said that whatever the motivations of the Red companies, the spillover of American spending has made a real difference.

“When I was going to medical school a few years back, we would see patients and send them home knowing they were going to die without medication,” she said. “I don’t feel that way now. The money we get from Red through the Global Fund is helping to save lives. That’s the important thing.”

Ron Nixon reported from Rwanda last year and added updated information from New York.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2008

U2 May Be Next to Leave Record Biz

Roger Friedman, Fox News

I told you earlier this week that the Rolling Stones are looking at a deal with concert promoter Live Nation that would also cover the release of their CDs. The deal is similar to the one Madonna signed in 2007.

Now I'm told that at least two more big acts are in talks with Live Nation along similar lines. The most surprising of these is U2, which has spent its entire career on either Island Records or a company connected to it, Interscope. They are all part of the Universal Music Group.

But times are changing quickly in what's left of the music business, and U2 is said to be wanting out. If they go with Live Nation, their exit from UMG will be a blow to all, including Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine, the group's principal contacts.

My sources say the group's most recent release, 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," fulfilled their Interscope contract. UMG also released a remastered version of the group's seminal album, "The Joshua Tree," recently. That also may have concluded the contract.

Interestingly, the current U2 movie, a 3D concert film that's received high praise, has no CD soundtrack to accompany it. Considering that U2's catalog is light on live recordings, the lack of an Interscope CD does set off alarms.

A few months ago, you'll recall that U2's savvy manager, Paul McGuiness, told me that the group will have at least two new releases in 2008: their Broadway "Spiderman" musical and a separate rock album.

It's entirely possible that those two releases would form the basis of a new deal, perhaps with Live Nation. The "Spiderman" musical is set to be directed by Julie Taymor ("The Lion King") and may feature members of the cast of her 2007 Beatles film, "Across the Universe."

The other artist I'm told is talking to Live Nation is Christian singer Michael W. Smith. The singer records for Franklin, Tenn.-based Reunion Records and has an enormous following in the Christian niche market.

If U2 makes this kind of deal, along with the Stones and Madonna, soon all bets will be off at the majors over long term or heritage artists. The Eagles are already on their own through Wal-Mart, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell have jumped to Starbucks' Hear Music, and Radiohead deserted EMI for their own company.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

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