US bank JPMorgan Chase is buying an office in Dublin still under construction and plans to double its headcount in the Irish capital to 1,000.
Real estate firm Kennedy Wilson said the bank’s Irish unit is buying the 200 Capital Dock building from the company, Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings and Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency. The building, which is due for completion in the autumn of 2018, will provide JP Morgan with 130,000 square feet (12,000 square metres).
“Given the momentum of our local businesses, this new building gives us room to grow and some flexibility within the European Union (EU),” Carin Bryans, senior country officer for JPMorgan in Ireland, said in the statement. “Dublin has the vibrant business and technology communities that suit a global firm like ours.”
Although the size of the deal wasn’t confirmed, reports suggest that JP Morgan is paying €125m (£106m/US$137m) for the property.
The bank announced earlier this month that it planned to move up to 1,000 staff currently based in London to alternative locations as a result of the UK’s Brexit vote last June and that Dublin would be one of three EU locations for operations previously carried out in the UK capital.
The Financial Times has also reported that JP Morgan plans to increase its Dublin workforce in order to expand its custody business.
Dublin is in contention with several other European cities in persuading financial institutions to relocate all of part of their London-based operations post-Brexit. HSBC announced in January that around 1,000 jobs will be moved to Paris, insurer American International Group (AIG) will establish a European hub in Luxembourg and Lloyd’s of London is setting up a subsidiary in Brussels.