Limerick sets out growth plan
By David Raleigh
Limerick is leading the way as an alternative location to Dublin for large global investors, a briefing of stakeholders of an €18m office building in the city has heard.
The Gardens International development is the first office building in Limerick to be built to the highest global standards.
It is expected the first tenants will move in during the fourth quarter of this year. The entire 80,000sq ft office block will be fully let by 2019, creating 750 jobs, the developer Limerick Twenty Thirty has predicted.
The developer, owned by Limerick’s local authority, acquired the building from Nama in 2014. It has acquired a number of other landmark sites in a €500m investment plan creating 5,000 jobs over the next five years.
Aidan Gavin, managing director of global real estate firm Custman Wakefield, which is letting agents for Gardens International, said Limerick is now “very much to the fore” as a very attractive option for international companies compared to Dublin.
“When we compete with foreign direct investment internationally we compete across Europe for those itineraries when they come. And when you look at the international markets, you see London as the hottest market across Europe.”
“Dublin is at €619 per square metre and, at that, is no longer as competitive as it was historically but we don’t have any concerns with that as it is where Dublin should be in the market. But I think what it is doing is making the likes of Limerick a very competitive alternative for international companies coming here.”
Mr Gavin said commercial rates in regional cities, such as Limerick, were up to €300 per square metre cheaper than Dublin rates. “When we talk to international occupiers about opportunities in Ireland where they can locate to I think Limerick is very much up there in the top of the list now.”
He cited a recent example of an international company locating to Limerick over Dublin, despite the occupier having wanted Dublin.
“They did the analysis. When they looked at suburban Dublin they compared it with regional Ireland. They actually ended up relocating [to Limerick] and one of the main drivers was not just the office accommodation, it was quality of life, the ability to get children into school, the ability to get rental accommodation, the ability to buy houses.
"There’s a lot going for regional Ireland at the moment,” Mr Gavin said.
