Workday Narrows 300K SF Office Search To 3 Sites After Canceling Development
U.S. financial management software company Workday has narrowed its search for new offices to three sites after abandoning its 550K SF development plans at Grangegorman.
Workday is looking at three options, according to React News, including Kennedy Wilson and Cain International’s Coopers Cross development, where two buildings are available totalling close to 400K SF. The list is rounded out by Meta’s 375K SF Fibonacci Square, developed by Johnny Ronan in Ballsbridge, and the 540K SF College Square development by Marlet Group. Other options could be considered.
Workday, which was founded in 2005, had secured planning permission for a Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters on Dublin’s northside, but around two weeks ago it announced that it would not proceed with the scheme.
In April 2022, the company announced a project to create 1,000 jobs over the following two years after proposing a new European headquarters at Grangegorman, Dublin, in a move supported at the time by the Irish government.
The grant of planning permission covered Workday’s 10-year plans for the scheme, to include two office blocks from eight to 12 storeys high at the Strategic Development Zone at Grangegorman, Dublin 7.
It included two conditions that would have required Workday to pay €8M in planning contributions to Dublin City Council and would have increased its workforce capacity in Ireland to 3,500. Workday employs around 2,000 people and plans to add circa 300 more staff by February 2025, working in partnership with academic institutions.
Workday is instead planning to locate its EMEA headquarters in existing office space in Dublin city centre that is similar to Grangegorman in scale and scope, with a requirement of around 300K SF.
“As we rapidly grow in Dublin, we have decided to expand our EMEA headquarters in existing office space rather than pursue a new development,” a Workday spokesman told the Irish Independent as the company announced that the Grangegorman scheme was no longer proceeding. “We hope to confirm the location in Dublin by the end of 2024, and we will continue to operate from our current Dublin office locations, The Kings Building, Dublin 7, and Dockline, Dublin 1.”
The future of the Grangegorman site is yet to be determined and will be decided by the owner, the Health Service Executive, plus the Grangegorman Development Agency. However, it is unlikely to be built out in its current design.
Workday had originally assembled a team to progress its planning application that included planning consultant Tom Phillips + Associates and architect Henry J Lyons.
