Top tech firms set for Cherrywood

Two high-calibre international technology firms are to lease office space of 2,879sq m (31,000sq ft) in one of two buildings in Cherrywood owned by a subsidiary of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council, marking a further milestone in the development of the park as a leading office location for foreign direct investment companies.

DLR Properties, which owns and manages the buildings in Cherrywood, is working with the new tenants to refurbish and fit out the premises to precise specifications.

The new tenants, Hibernia Evros and Welocalize Ireland, will be paying rents of just over €10 per sq ft for space in the 12-year-old building. Hibernia Evros, who are taking 1,858 sq m (20,000 sq ft), are a homegrown IT and data management company of 20 years standing that looks after the IT systems of many large Irish-based local and international companies. There are 200 people working for Hibernia, a figure the firm hopes to double over the next three years.

Welocalise Ireland, who are renting 1,021sq m (11,000sq ft) , is a leader in translation and software localisation solutions, helping global IT and consumer brands deliver high volumes of product content on demand and reach audiences around the world in more than 120 languages. The company has offices in 13 locations worldwide and employs 70 people in Ireland.

New lettings
DLR Properties owns and manages two buildings in Cherrywood-Block AA (6,038sq m/65,000sq ft)and Block GT2 (9,754sq m/105,000sq ft). The two new lettings are in Block AA which was previously occupied by Lucent Technologies and Service Source. Conor Whelan of agents BNPPRE negotiated the lettings.

DLR Properties has been carrying out a refurbishment programme to bring the office facilities up to a high standard. Several potential tenants have been looking at the available space and an announcement of further lettings is expected shortly.

Rob Davies, chief executive of DLR, said they were seeing demand from large-scale occupiers seeking accommodation at a more competitive overall rental cost than in the city centre. Occupancy costs could be 50 per cent of those in the city centre.

More occupiers
With the supply of space falling to low levels and rents continuing to increase in the city centre, they expected that more occupiers would be looking at suburban locations such as Cherrywood. Block G2 was the only available office building in the south suburbs with floor areas in excess of 10,000sq m.

DLR also owns 22 acres of development land, adjacent to the Bride's Glen Luas stop, which is destined to accommodate a business and mixed use development under the draft Cherrrywood Strategic Development Zone. Cherrywood is the largest zoned land area within the M50 and when developed will provide up to 1.4 million sq ft of buildings.