State Street is closing in on a deal to relocate its Dublin headquarters to 2 Grand Canal Quay (2GCQ), the new 15-storey office building developed by billionaire Denis O’Brien in the city’s south docklands.
The company, one of the largest international financial services employers in the Republic, with 2,300 staff in offices in Dublin, Kilkenny, Naas and Drogheda, is understood to have agreed heads of terms on an agreement for between 5,574 and 7432sq m of space at 2GCQ. The proposed lease is for 15 years with a break option in year 12 at a rent in the region of €60 per sq ft.
Developed on the site immediately adjacent to No 1 Grand Canal Quay, where O’Brien has his own penthouse office, 2GCQ is a 15-storey building comprising 13,470sq m of grade A office space. The property boasts panoramic city and waterfront views and is complemented by a triple-height entrance lobby with its own cafe, a landscaped 10th-floor roof terrace, a double-height penthouse atrium and what letting agent Knight Frank describes as “clubhouse-standard” end-of-trip facilities.
In terms of its environmental credentials, 2GCQ is highly sustainable with target credentials that include an A2 Ber rating, Net Zero Carbon 2030 (operational), and Wiredscore Platinum certification. Forty per cent of the property’s total energy requirements are supplied by on-site renewable energy via solar and heat-pump technologies.
State Street’s decision to enter into a new, long-term agreement on a new Dublin headquarters is consistent with the message it relayed to its Irish staff late last year on its plan to impose a model of four days in the office per week on a phased basis this year. The return-to-office (RTO) mandate is in line with the rule State Street brought in at its group headquarters in the US in 2023.
Commenting on its plan to have its Irish staff back working four days in the office, a spokesman for State Street told The Irish Times last week that: “We have seen great results in various markets where four-days-in-office model has helped accelerate trust, deepen relationships and drive better outcomes.
“Our aspiration is to establish a consistent four-day-in-office model across EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] and APAC [Asia-Pacific], that will position us for success and enables us to achieve our strategy and fulfil our purpose.”
While State Street’s decision to commit for the long term to a new Dublin headquarter office will be viewed within the commercial property sector and wider business community as a positive indicator for the Dublin office market, the firm’s move from its existing headquarters at 78 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay has unsurprisingly hurt the valuation of its current landlord Axa’s property portfolio.
The most recent filings for Claypole Ltd, the holding company for Axa’s Irish commercial real estate interests showed it booked a 10 per cent reduction to the valuation of its office portfolio in 2024. In a note to its accounts, the company said this was linked to State Street’s plan to vacate its Sir John Rogerson’s Quay offices.