Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Operations and Functions: National Asset Management Agency

4:20 pm

Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

The docklands area is crucially important for Dublin. In its central business district there are currently only about two buildings with a 100,000 square ft. floor-plate available, which is what people are looking for. Rents are therefore rising quite quickly. They were about €55 per square foot at the peak. They went down to €27 per square foot and now they are back up towards €45 per square foot. Commercially a new building could be built at an average of about €35 per square foot. It is therefore profitable to build it out. We are certainly very anxious to get on and we welcome the SDZ. It improves the prospects of getting through planning system quicker, and we would certainly prioritise the 13 sites. We have four of them in joint ventures with various parties, and we have prioritised the other nine to get the planning applications through to Dublin City Council in the next six to 12 months. We would hope to start real construction activities on some of those sites in early 2016.