U.S. giant Colony Northstar has committed to funding the €1B Spencer Place, which will include one of Dublin's biggest-ever speculative office schemes.
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Colony this week confirmed it will provide the finance needed to build the 1.1M SF mixed-use scheme in Dublin's Docklands area which it is undertaking with Irish developer Johnny Ronan, in a huge vote of confidence for the Dublin economy.
Colony and Ronan are seeking to take advantage of increased demand for Dublin office space from overseas firms and the fall-out from Brexit.
Spencer Place will be funded by Colony through one of its managed investment vehicles.
Four office buildings will be built at Spencer Place as well as a hotel, shops and homes. The first of these properties is due to be completed in 2020, with the lower floors of the office scheme already being poured.
The designers of the project are Design Group, which also designed Amazon’s European headquarters on Burlington road. The contractors are PJ Hegarty & Sons.
Spencer Place is divided into the North Site and the South Site.
The South Site extends to approximately 720K SF, which will mainly be offices with some retail and a five-star 212-bedroom hotel.
The North Site will be a mix of offices and residential and extends to 410K SF.
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A spokesman for Ronan Group Real Estate said some of the residential will be student accommodation. It will also have 1,000 bicycle spaces.
“We are trying to reflect what younger people want, and a lot of them prefer to cycle bikes rather than use cars.”
Brexit has also been cited as a reason for Colony NorthStar’s interest in the development.
“Even if you have very minor Brexit moves of 500 or 1,000 people from individual banks, that has a huge impact in Dublin because there currently is a shortage of space,” Colony Managing Director Stefan Jaeger told Bloomberg. “Dublin will be a major beneficiary and this development is in a prime position to take advantage of that.”
“We can also deliver housing in the second phase, which is very attractive for any Brexit occupier that might think about moving,” because the city also has a shortage of homes, Jaeger said.
Spencer Place is next to the 2M SF Spencer Dock, which was also developed by Ronan. It includes the Convention Centre, which has just won the award for World’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre at the 24th annual World Travel Awards, PWC's Irish headquarters which was sold last year for €242M, the Irish Central Bank building, the Credit Suisse HQ and 620 apartments.
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