GOOGLE IRELAND HAS secured the green light for an office scheme that will establish a new company campus at Grand Canal Street Lower in Dublin to accommodate 1,700 workers.

This follows Dublin City Council granting planning permission to Google Ireland to increase the height of the Treasury Building on Grand Canal Street from six to eight storeys in an office scheme named Boland’s Bakery.

Boland’s Bakery will accommodate 1,100 workers while the nearby Johnny Ronan owned Annex building will accommodate a further 600 workers for Google.

Mr Ronan’s Ashleam Ltd last year secured planning permission to increase the height for the Annex building to eight storeys as part of the Google office campus.

The grant of permission to Google Ireland follows almost two years after the US tech giant purchased the Treasury Building for €120m from Johnny Ronan, Paddy McKillen and Percy Nominees.

The redevelopment of the Treasury Building will provide 7,802sqm of additional office floor space resulting in a total of 20,933sqm floor space.

Concerning the Boland’s Bakery redevelopment, consultants for Google Ireland told the City Council that “while the future landscape of workplaces is uncertain, Google Ireland is fully committed to this exemplar redevelopment that re-uses the old, imagines the new and seeks to set the standard for future offices in Ireland”.

Google has its European Middle East and Africa (EMEA) HQ here and is the largest outside the US where it already employs over 8,000 workers here.

The City Council has given the Boland’s Bakery scheme the go-ahead after receiving an enthusiastic endorsement from its planner in the case.

The planner’s report stated that the Google office proposal “will upgrade one of the most prominent locations in the city and contribute to the animation and vitality of this large building which is proximate to public transport and other amenities”. 

The report also states that the scheme “is likely to make a positive contribution to the place making and public spaces surrounding the site by providing for a new active street frontage to Grand Canal St Lower”.

The report also states that the proposal refurbishes an under-utilised building with a modern office building which “would be considered a positive intervention at this centrally located area”.

The Council gave the scheme the go-ahead despite an objection from Clanwilliam Management CLG which argued that the proposed eight storey height of the proposal at the Treasury building “would also present an overdevelopment of the site which would have an overbearing effect upon the occupants of Clanwilliam Square”.

Planning consultants, Downey Planning stated: “Just as the initial 10 storey scheme for the site of the Annex Building was seen to be unacceptable in its scale, the proposed extension of the Treasury Building should also be reconsidered”.

Downey Planning told the city council that the planned scheme “would not be acceptable in its current form”.