Bank to pay £60m for new HQ in the docks

Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB) is to pay almost £60 million for a new headquarters to be built at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin…

Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB) is to pay almost £60 million for a new headquarters to be built at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4. The site is within a few hundred yards of the new Barrow Street DART station, which is due to open this summer.

IIB has reserved 100,000 sq ft of space with an option to take up to 40,000 more in the proposed £100 million scheme to be carried out by property developer Bernard McNamara. Two listed flour mills, acquired last year from IAWS for £8.8 million, are to be be converted into apartments. More than 60 residential units will be available in the mills and in a new waterfront block.

Most of the office space will be provided in two new buildings ranging from six to eight storeys in height. The development will include a cultural and amenity facility and a waterside cafe with two levels of car-parking in the basement.

IIB's decision to move to Grand Canal Docks will copperfasten the redevelopment of an area earmarked for a number of major schemes over the next two years. Treasury Holdings has two sites along Barrow Street, while IAWS still uses the adjoining Bolands Mills.

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On the opposite side of Barrow Street, Zoe Developments has secured planning permission to build more than 600 apartments and a small office scheme on the former Bord Gais Eireann site. A previous scheme approved by Dublin Corporation was overruled by An Bord Pleanala.

Jack Fagan

Jack Fagan

Jack Fagan is the former commercial-property editor of The Irish Times