Demand for offices outstripping supply by a million square feet

Companies looking for over one million sq. ft of new office space in Dublin will not be able to find suitable accommodation for a considerable time because of the serious scarcity that has developed. Pent-up demand will mean that shortages will continue until the early part of 2001, according to estate agents.

Two telecommunications companies need a total of 450,000 sq. ft to expand their Irish operations and Bank of Ireland has a requirement for 150,000 sq. ft in an out-of-town location where rents are lower than in the city. A leading computer company is also seeking 250,000 sq. ft and several other Dublin-based companies have retained agents to find about 100,000 sq. ft for each of them.

With the number of tenants waiting for new buildings increasing almost weekly, several development companies are planning to proceed with schemes in the expectation they will pre-let them. Work has just begun on an extension to East Point in the Dublin docklands, where an additional 350,000 sq. ft is to be built to bring the overall scheme up to 1.5 million sq ft. The first block of 90,000 sq. ft, like the remainder of the new space, is being developed on a joint venture basis by the Earlsfort Centre and Dublin Port and Docks Board.

In Sandyford, Green Property Company is building 175,000 sq. ft of offices in the first phase of a 350,000 sq. ft scheme on the former Alert site. The first block will be ready for fit out in 12 months. Developer Sean Reilly is well advanced on the initial phase of a 200,000 sq. ft speculative scheme at Iveagh Court on Harcourt Road near the city centre. The first block of 25,000 sq. ft will be completed before the end of the year. The largest scheme under way, Park West, on the M50 in west Dublin, will have almost two million sq. ft of high-tech space completed by Christmas.

Another motorway office park is due to get under way shortly at Leopardstown where planning permission was granted last Friday for the first phase of a development of 1.6 million sq. ft. John Finnegan of Finnegan Menton, which is joint agent for the Central Park scheme, said it is already in negotiations with a number of international companies who are large space users. The business park has been designed to cater for tenants looking for high volumes of space ranging from 45,000 to 500,000 sq. ft.

The developers plan initially to build more than 700,000 sq. ft of offices and a 150-bedroom hotel on the 20-acre site. The planners have ruled that the remaining 50 per cent element of the scheme should not be occupied until the LUAS is operating and the South Eastern Motorway extension to the M50 is completed in 2003.

The park is to be developed by a consortium of David Arnold and Castlemarket Holdings (a joint venture company between Jermyn Investment Property and Treasury Holdings).