Facebook to take extra space

FACEBOOK, THE leading social networking site, is to embark on another expansion of its European headquarters in Dublin by leasing the last floor in its existing office block in the south docklands.

The company is to rent another 1,021sq m (11,000sq ft) in the Hanover Reach building which overlooks Grand Canal Dock.

The latest expansion means that Facebook will now occupy all six floors in the 5,696sq m (61,311sq ft) Hanover Reach building which was developed by Francis Rhatigan and Chris Jones of Ellier Developments.

Facebook initially settled for a rent of €376 per sq m (€35 per sq ft) when it first moved into the block in July, 2009?

The rent level has since slipped to around €322 per sq m (€30 per sq ft) in line with the general decline in Dublin office rents.

Facebook and Ellier are understood to be sharing the cost of fitting out the last available floor in Hanover Reach which is being leased for a period of two years to bring it into line with other leases which have break options in 2014.

The site has proved particularly popular with Facebook staff because of its convenient location close to new apartment developments and quite a few restaurants and bars as well as the city centre.

The Dublin centre provides a range of online technical, sales and operations support to Facebook’s users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company employs over 300 staff in Dublin and is currenly recruiting additional personnel.

The social networking giant has more than 800 million active users.

Revenues at the Irish subsidiary rose from €15.2 million to €229.1 million in 2010, according to accounts lodged at the Companies Office towards the end of last year.

Ronan Corbett of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald advised Facebook while Roland O’Connell of Savills acted for Ellier.

The Facebook deal comes at a time when Dublin office lettings have slowed down largely because of the economic uncertainties.

That might also be the reason why the Kerry Group recently cancelled plans to rent a newly completed office block of 4,340sq m (50,000sq ft) at Waterside in City West Business Park.

The company has offices in Tallaght, Finglas and Santry and had planned to use City West for what it calls “a Kerry group global IT project”.

A spokesman said Kerry Group had decided “not to progress the City West option”. The cancellation will be particularly disappointing for a group of Davy private investors who acquired the Waterside scheme before the property market crashed.

New figures on the Dublin office market to be released next week are expected to show a marked decline in lettings in the second quarter of 2012.