Amazon’s plans to grow its Irish operations have moved up a gear following an agreement to lease 15,793sq m (170,000 sq ft) of office space currently being developed by the McGarrell Reilly Group as part of its Charlemont Street Regeneration Project in Dublin city centre.

The US-headquartered online retailer ’s decision to secure the Charlemont Square offices will give it the capacity to increase its existing Dublin-based workforce by an additional 1,700 workers. Amazon already employs more than 2,200 people in the capital between its European headquarters in the Shannon Building on Burlington Road and other locations.

While it is understood the company’s agreement for Charlemont Square was concluded in recent days, the online retailer had been in discussions with the McGarrell Reilly Group since March 2018 in relation to a potential deal for the offices.

The Irish Times understands Charlemont Square will be used to accommodate Amazon’s highly-skilled staff, including software engineers, network development engineers, data centre specialists, systems and support experts, and solutions architects.

Development

McGarrell Reilly’s Charlemont Square development is part of a wider €85 million mixed-use scheme it is currently progressing on Charlemont Street as part of a partnership it entered into with Dublin City Council. Phase one of the project saw the delivery in September 2017 of 79 social housing units on the site along with a range of community facilities. A further 184 private residential units are being completed, bringing the total number of new homes to 263.

Charlemont Street has seen significant development and regeneration activity over recent years. Outside of the McGarrell Reilly Group’s delivery of Amazon’s new offices, developer Pat Crean’s Marlet Property Group acquired and redeveloped all four blocks of the nearby Charlemont Exchange office scheme before selling it on earlier this year to South Korean-based fund, Vestas Management for €145 million. Prior to agreeing the deal with Vestas, Marlet agreed a lease with flexible workspace provider, WeWork, for all four blocks at a rent of € 55 per square foot.