Professional services firm
KPMG
is to remain in Dublin city centre
after agreeing to extend until 2026 the lease on its head offices at Stokes Place on St Stephen’s Green, where more than 750 of its 1,900 staff are based.
With the lease on the premises due to run out in 2017, the firm has reviewed its future office requirements and looked at a range of alternative locations in the Dublin area.
Managing partner Shaun Murphy said yesterday that the decision to remain at the St Stephen's Green head office was based on a comprehensive analysis of the firm's future needs and was supported by feedback from clients and staff that the Stokes Place premises was an excellent location in terms of profile and access.
The firm recently announced plans to recruit 330 staff across all its office locations.
KPMG has been based at Stokes Place since the early 1980s. The three blocks there were owned since the 1990s by Treasury Holdings and after that firm was put into liquidation the offices were sold by Nama as part of the Opera Portfolio to US private equity giant Kennedy Wilson.
That company has now agreed a refurbishment programme for the offices, which is expected to get under way later this year. In addition to Stokes Place, KPMG has a significant presence in the IFSC where more than 500 of its staff are based in a modern office building at Harbourmaster Place held as an investment by businessmen Martin Naughton and Lochlann Quinn.
KPMG has 79 partners and more than 1,900 staff based in Belfast, Cork and Galway as well as Dublin.
Declan O'Reilly of Knight Frank advised KPMG.
Other options
Had the company chosen to relocate to a large new headquarters in the city centre, one of the options would have been to move to the former Bank of Ireland premises on Baggot Street, which is about to be refurbished by businessman Larry Goodman.
