Deloitte chooses Irish Life building on Adelaide Road for new Dublin HQ

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte has chosen Irish Life’s building at 1 Adelaide Road in Dublin 2 as its preferred location for a new headquarters in Dublin.

The firm selected Irish Life from a shortlist of three sites for the new HQ and will now move to agree financial terms for the location. It is currently paying a blended rate of about €55 per sq ft for its existing office space across a number of buildings in the city.

Deloitte’s search for a new premises predated the pandemic, with the firm significantly scaling back its plan as a result of the move to hybrid working that flowed from Covid-19 lockdowns.

The 10-storey over-basement property at Adelaide Road was formerly used by AIB and is located on the green Luas line close to the Harcourt stop. It will offer about 160,000sq ft of space to Deloitte, where previously it had sought 275,000sq ft, according to Deloitte chief executive Harry Goddard.

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“We’re very happy with that, I think it’s the right size for us,” Mr Goddard said. “But configured in a way that is much more beneficial to us. Being across four different buildings isn’t fit for purpose in what is the new way of working. It will give us an opportunity to be a lot more efficient in how we use our space.”

He said the office would have 1,450 desks, while the firm has about 2,500 staff in Dublin. “We are focused on creating an environment for increased collaboration and connection and the office will facilitate that through work spaces and more open collaboration zones.”

At present, Deloitte has five buildings in Dublin. Mr Goddard said about one-third of its pre-pandemic office space is either mothballed or sublet.

“I just don’t anticipate us getting back to the level of presenteeism as we had before. We are using our regional offices much more significantly than we did before. And I anticipate us relooking at our existing footprint with a view to how we can better leverage that on a national basis.”

Mr Goddard said the firm would need to spend “tens of millions of euro” on a fit-out of the new HQ, with the new office designed around training areas, client conference facilities and “some desking”.