Giant accountancy firm starts search for a new HQ in Dublin

The giant accountancy firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) is looking for a new headquarters in Dublin to accommodate its staff of 1,200. Once it finds a suitable building of 150,000 sq ft, the company plans to sell its leasehold interests in a modern block at George's Quay, opposite the Custom House, and a refurbished block at Wilton Place.

The search for the new headquarters gets under way at a time when Dublin's office vacancy rate is at it lowest level (under 2 per cent) in modern times. PwC has given its agents a time-frame of mid-2002 to find a suitable premises.

Declan O'Reilly of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald acknowledges that it will "take some time to source a new corporate headquarters of this scale in a prime commercial location". However, he says there are a number of potentially suitable sites in excellent locations.

The 45,000 sq ft George's Quay building leased by Coopers & Lybrand and the 75,000 sq ft Gardiner House at Wilton Place which served as the headquarters for Price Waterhouse are both owned by the Irish Pension Fund Property Unit Trust (IPFPUT). While there is unlikely to be much difficulty in finding companies prepared to pay significant key money for both buildings, it will be another matter to convince IPFPUT that the replacement tenants offer the same security as PwC.

Coopers & Lybrand is renting the George's Quay building on a 25-year lease from 1992 at a rent of £27 per sq ft and about £1,000 for each of the 50 car-parking spaces. The company claims double rent allowances and a remission of rates until 2002. IPFPUT has owned Gardiner House at Wilton Place since it was completed about 15 year ago. Price Waterhouse is understood to be paying about £17 per sq ft for t he block which has 82 car-parking spaces, also rented at £1,000 each per annum.

The Coopers & Lybrand building adjoins the Dublin headquarters of the Ulster Bank, which could possibly come on to the market when the bank is sold shortly. The bank has 110,000 sq ft of space which may not be required if Bank of Ireland and Irish Life and Permanent take it over. Even if the bank does not vacate its Dublin HQ, PwC may well have an opportunity to link up Coopers & Lybrand with a new office development planned for the rear of the George's Quay site.