While questions in relation to the precise timing and extent of the return of workers to offices in Dublin’s traditional central business district remain, occupier interest in the city’s south suburbs is proving to be robust.
Having recently witnessed the year’s largest letting with 40,000sq ft of space taken up by BNP Paribas Bank at the Termini building in Sandyford, the south Dublin market has notched up the second most significant deal of 2021 in nearby Cherrywood.
Accenture, the Irish-based multinational which has its headquarters in Dublin’s Grand Canal Square, has signed a 10-year lease to occupy the entire 36,500sq ft first floor in Building 10 at The Campus. The completion of the deal gives Accenture office space to accommodate an additional 300 workers and brings Accenture’s overall footprint in Cherrywood to about 80,000sq ft.
John Cannon in BNP Paribas Real Estate advised Accenture and JLL’s Conor Fitzpatrick represented the landlord.
Established in Ireland for the past 50 years, Accenture employs more than 5,000 people here in professional services. The company recently announced a plan to increase that number through the recruitment of more than 500 people in the life sciences sector over the next three years.
Since acquiring the buildings at the Campus in December 2017, the scheme’s owners, Spear Street Capital, have invested heavily in place-making with a view to making it an effective complement to the wider Cherrywood development being delivered by US real estate firm Hines.
Apart from carrying out comprehensive improvement works to the Campus’s existing buildings, Spear Street oversaw the construction of two new blocks: F1 which is now fully let to Elavon, and F2 where a total of 80,000 sq ft is available to lease.
In terms of the public realm, MOLA Architecture were brought on board to redefine the space to include a new “sunken garden” and to reconfigure the scheme’s lakeside area for the use of occupiers and visitors. Three communal meeting pods, which are located on raised platforms and at canopy level in the surrounding woodlands are being installed.
These have been designed to promote staff health and wellbeing. Joint letting agents JLL and Cushman & Wakefield are marketing the remaining space at Building F2, which can accommodate occupiers ranging from 8,000 to 80,000sq ft.
Outside of its proven popularity with major corporates such as Accenture and Elavon, the Campus has shown itself to be attractive to international investors. Last September Spear Street secured €27.7 million from the sale of Block 12 at the scheme to French asset management company, Corum.
Block 12 is fully occupied by the global insurance giant Aviva on a 25-year full repairing and insuring (FRI) lease from July 2002 with no break options. The annual rental income is €1.810 million, reflecting a rental rate of €21.50 per square foot.
The surrounding new town of Cherrywood will meanwhile comprise more than 7,700 new homes upon completion, alongside offices, shops, six schools, three public parks and leisure facilities, with four Luas stops serving a planned population of 25,000.
