Google office building in Dublin. Image: © Nicola.K.photos.adobe.com
The planner’s report said Google’s proposal will develop an ‘underutilised plot’ and make a ‘positive contribution’ to the local area.
Google Ireland has been given the go ahead to establish a new campus in Dublin’s city centre that will accommodate a reported 1,700 workers.
Dublin City Council granted planning permission to Google Ireland on 27 January to increase the height of the Treasury Building on Grand Canal Street from six to eight storeys.
The company is refurbishing and extending the building, previously the headquarters of the National Treasury Management Agency, which it bought in 2020 for €120m. The extension will provide an additional 7,802 sq m of office floor space.
The planner’s report stated that Google’s proposal would “significantly regenerate and likely rejuvenate an existing office block”. It noted that given the central location of the site, the height of existing structures and nearby buildings, as well as public transport options, the site could be considered an “underutilised plot”.
The report added that the development could “make a positive contribution” to the area with new street frontage, landscaping and upgraded public footpaths. It said the proposed changes will “likely redefine and improve the streetscape along Grand Canal Street” while generating new employment and increasing footfall, which could “have a significant economic benefit for the local area”.
When developed, the Treasury Building is expected to form part of a new city centre company campus with the nearby Annex building.
Google currently employs around 8,000 people in Dublin, where it has its EMEA headquarters, and it already has bases in a number of buildings in the vicinity.
The company revealed last year that it decided not to go ahead with plans to lease the seven-storey Sorting Office in Dublin’s docklands for up to 2,000 employees, raising concerns that the company was pulling back on its operations in the city or on in-person workspaces.
But in the planning application for the Grand Canal Street site, consultants for Google told Dublin City Council that “while the future landscape of workplaces is uncertain, Google Ireland is fully committed to this exemplar redevelopment that reuses the old, imagines the new and seeks to set the standard for future offices in Ireland”.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
