JPMorgan to buy $137mn Dublin office

Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay about 125 million euros ($137 million) for an office building under construction in Dublin, according to a person with knowledge of the plan. The person asked not to be identified because the price hasn’t been been
announced publicly.
The bank’s Irish unit is buying the 200 Capital Dock building from real estate firm Kennedy Wilson, Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency, Kennedy Wilson said in a statement on Monday. The building, which measures about 130,000 square feet and will be able to accommodate more than 1,000 workers, is due to be finished in the third quarter of 2018.
Spokeswomen for JPMorgan and Kennedy Wilson declined to comment on the price of the property. The acquisition is expected to complete at the same time as the building is finished.
The US bank is expanding its custody business in Ireland and plans to hire a significant number of new workers as part of that growth. BlackRock Inc. transferred custody services related to about $1.3 trillion of client assets earlier this year from State Street Corp. to the bank, which currently employs about 500 people in custody and fund services in the Irish capital.
Rising searches for Dublin office space, some of it from occupiers moving workers after the Brexit vote, has led to increased demand from buyers for office space under construction, CBRE Group Inc. said in a report this month. About 7 percent of office space in the Irish capital was vacant at the end of the first quarter, compared with 7.7 percent a year earlier, according to data compiled by the broker.
The money raised from the sale of 200 Capital Dock, together with a 125-million euro loan advanced by Deutsche Bank AG, will fund the majority of the remaining cost of developing the wider Capital Dock project, which will also include apartments, according to Kennedy Wilson. Bloomberg News earlier reported the bank’s plan to buy the building.