Targeted Investment Opportunities (TIO) has confirmed the letting of 1,467sq m (15,800sq ft) at North Dock Two to Blueface, the cloud-based telecommunications company. The Irish-founded Blueface was recently bought by American telecommunications conglomerate Comcast.
News of the deal follows on from the decision late last year of US biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to take two floors totalling 2,972sq m (32,000sq ft) in the same building.
Located next to the 3Arena, North Dock bears the distinction of being Dublin’s first nZEB (nearly zero energy building) office development. The scheme extends to 18,766sq m (202,000sq ft) in total distributed between North Dock One (8,826sq m/95,000sq ft) and North Dock Two (9,940sq m/107,000sq ft). The remainder of the space is being offered to the market by joint letting agents Savills and JLL at a rent of €52.50 per sq ft.
The scheme should appeal to the public sector particularly, given its obligation since December 31st, 2018, to favour the occupation of buildings that comply with nZEB standards. North Dock is the first of a number of buildings under construction to achieve this benchmark.
Potential occupiers
Quite apart from the building’s specifications and suitability for potential occupiers, the area surrounding North Dock has emerged as a location of choice thanks to the presence of an increasing number of amenities and its accessibility.
The four-star Gibson Hotel has been trading from Point Square for 10 years now, while the nearby Beckett Locke Aparthotel is due for completion later this year. Freshii, the Salad Box, Ruby’s, Eddie Rockets, Insomnia,and Starbucks are all located at Point Square along with Centra and the Odeon Cinema. These will be added to once the new “Glass Box” restaurant building is completed beside the recently-constructed Exo building. An Post has plans to move their headquarters from the GPO on O’Connell Street to the Exo shortly.
In terms of transport, the Luas terminus is situated directly behind North Dock allowing for regular and rapid connections to the Dart at Connolly Station and the Luas green line at Abbey Street. Dublin Airport meanwhile is less than a 15 minutes’ drive via the nearby Port Tunnel, while access to the south side of the city is made easy by the Eastlink Bridge.
