Investment giant Fidelity International signs leases for new Dublin city centre offices

27 Jan 2016

Fidelity International has signed two leases to rent 6,317 square metres of office space at George’s Quay House in Dublin 2

Fidelity International has signed two leases to rent 6,317sqm of office space at George’s Quay House in Dublin 2, which faces the Custom House on the other side of the River Liffey.

The office space deal is understood to be one of the largest office-letting deals signed so far this year. The deal was handled by owners Green Reit, which acquired the building from Cosgrave Property Group in 2014 for €375m.

It is understood that Fidelity International will, at first, move members of its workforce into 2,462sqm offices that were formerly occupied by Royal Bank of Canada.

The lease is the latest in a series of high-profile tech property moves that include leases taken by Stripe and Airbnb at Silicon Docks and Twitter moving to Cumberland House on nearby Fenian Street.

Fidelity International is the sister company of Fidelity Investments, which has been growing its operations steadily in Ireland.

Fidelity International offers investment solutions and retirement expertise. Operating in Ireland since 2000, the company invests $258 billion globally on behalf of clients in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and South America.

In 2013, IDA Ireland revealed that Fidelity International’s sister company Fidelity Investments was to create 200 new jobs in Dublin and Galway involving a diverse mix of technology, back office operations and enterprise services skills. This was followed up a year later in December 2014 with news of 200 further roles at the company’s Dublin offices.

The American company originally set up operations in Ireland in 1996, with encouragement from IDA Ireland, and Fidelity Investments now has offices in Citywest, Dublin, and in Galway.

Since 2012, the firm’s presence has grown significantly, with confirmation of further plans to grow its Irish operations to more than 1,000 employees in the future.

Most of Fidelity’s employees in Ireland are part of the company’s technology or business operations division, and are involved in much of the firm’s business operations, including asset management, retail and institutional brokerage, workplace investing and corporate services.

Updated 3pm, 27 January 2016: This article was updated to reflect that it is Fidelity International, not Fidelity Investments, which has taken the lease on these new offices.

Dublin skyline image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com