Urbeo, the privately-owned Irish property investment platform, and its capital partner, Starwood, have appointed a project team to oversee substantial upgrade works to the North Dock office scheme in Dublin’s north docklands. Urbeo and Starwood acquired the 250,000sq ft development for about €85 million last November. The price paid represented a significant discount on the €130 million which had been sought by CBRE on behalf of receivers.
While North Dock had been promoted as Dublin’s first NZEB (nearly zero energy building) since its completion in 2020 by Targeted Investment Opportunities (TIO), an umbrella fund involving the National Asset Management Agency, Oaktree Capital and Bennett Construction, the scheme, which boasts strong ESG credentials, will now undergo a series of capital improvements over the next six to 12 months to enhance its amenities and improve the standard of its finish.
As part of this, all the development’s front-of-house landlord areas, including a statement entrance lobby and atrium, will undergo a complete overhaul as part of the new owner’s intention to bring the building to best-in-class standard. A comprehensive Cat A fit-out programme is also planned for the building, which will convert existing “grey-box” floor plates to grade-A leasing standard, as well as upgrading the building’s end-of-journey facilities. The project team will be led by Henry J Lyons Architects and Savills, the leasing agent for North Dock.
Located directly adjacent to the 3Arena on north Wall Quay, North Dock 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). Tenants at the scheme, which is 50 per cent occupied, include California-based biopharma group Gilead Sciences, US securities brokerage firm Interactive Brokers and Virtu Financial.
Commenting on his company’s plans for North Dock, Anthony Sweetman, managing partner at Urbeo said: “Urbeo is excited to be leading the repositioning of this landmark riverfront office building. We are confident that the occupier market will be equally excited when full plans for the refurbishment works are revealed later this year”.
Shane Duffy, head of office leasing at Savills, added: “As the office market continues to rebound, occupier interest remains focused on the best-quality office space, which continues to reduce in supply. The repositioning of North Dock will take advantage of this robust demand.”
