State Street to open at The Park

US financial services group State Street International is to open a new Irish headquarters at The Park in Carrickmines, Dublin.

The group is expected to pay a rent of about €215 a sq m (€20 a sq ft) for 3,000 sq m in the office complex being developed alongside the The Park retail park just off the M50. The bank is also likely to have been given a rent-free period of 12 to 18 months in Herbert block as well as a break option in year 10.

A spokesman for the bank said that leasing the large new premises in Carrickmines was part of a strategy to provide staff with a choice of location from which to work.

"This allows us to offer staff a working location which best suits their home and community needs while at the same time continuing to provide excellent service which our clients demand."

State Street employs 2,000 people in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre as well as Naas, Co Kildare, Kilkenny and Drogheda, Co Louth. The Carrickmines office will be located just off the M50. The Irish division has assets under administration and custody in Ireland of about $600 billion.

State Street first came to Dublin in the mid-1990S, when it established a small funds servicing alliance with Bank of Ireland. In 2003, it acquired the global securities business of Deutsche Bank and inherited the German bank's sizable Dublin funds business.

Last summer, in another major deal, the US bank acquired Investors Financial Services in a $4.5 billion all stock deal that increased staff numbers from 1,500 to around 2,000.

The group's choice of Carrickmines will be seen as a major endorsement for The Park which is being developed by a privately-owned property company headed by Michael Cotter.

He is one of the largest and most successful players in the Irish property market and is advised by Roland O'Connell of Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

State Street had contemplated moving to Cherrywood office park, also on the M50, but decided to opt for Carrickmines despite being offered major concessions by Liam Carroll's company Danninger, which is developing Cherrywood.

Last November, Mr Cotter pre-sold the second phase of The Park retail park in Carrickmines to Warren Private and AIB Private Banking for about €100 million. About 75 per cent of the retail space has already been let in advance of trading which is due to begin this spring.

Warren Private also bought the first phase of the park in January, 2006, for €100 million.