U.S. financial giant BlackRock is understood to be closing in on a deal to occupy two floors at the newly developed Glencar House in Ballsbridge as its new Dublin headquarters.

While the terms of the deal have yet to be finalised, The Irish Times reported that BlackRock is expected to occupy 22K SF of office space across the third and fourth floors of the seven-storey building on a 10-year lease at a blended rent of circa €65 per SF.

BlackRock is currently based at offices at the nearby 2 Ballsbridge Park, Dublin 4, and Glencar House was made available to let through joint agents BNP Paribas Real Estate and Cushman & Wakefield when it was brought to market in March, with floor plates ranging from 8,900 SF to 11,900 SF.

The news comes after new research from Colliers said Dublin’s office occupier market rebounded in the second quarter with takeup reaching almost 935K SF across 52 deals, marking the strongest quarter for office takeup since Q4 2021.

The largest deal of the quarter saw the Health Service Executive leasing the 182K SF Seamark Building in Dublin 4, followed by Stripe agreeing to lease 156K SF at One Wilton Park.

At the same time, speculative office completions have driven vacancy rates upward, with almost 700K SF of new space delivered in Q2 across six developments in Dublin 1 and 2, including the 288K SF Block 2 of Coopers Cross and part of the 208K SF College Square.

Colliers said full-year takeup could exceed 2M SF to bring the market closer to long-term averages.

Glencar House is opposite the Royal Dublin Society on Merrion Road and offers a total of 75K SF of Grade A office accommodation with a sustainability objective to secure LEED Platinum, WELL Platinum and WiredScore Platinum certifications, along with an A3 Building Energy Rating and nearly zero energy building compliance.

Glencar House was developed by Killeen Properties in collaboration with Walls Construction, Mitchell McDermott, Reddy Architecture + Urbanism and O’Connor Sutton Cronin Engineers.