Microsoft's European operations centre looks like being located at Sandyford Industrial Estate in Dublin 18. The American computer giant is in advanced negotiations to rent one of the two identical buildings of 180,000 sq ft in the Atrium Office Development which is currently being completed by Green Property Company.
If it goes ahead, the letting will be the largest since last April, when Eircell rented 263,000 sq ft in nearby Central Park on Leopardstown Road.
Microsoft will be paying a rent of £18.50 (#23.49) per sq ft for the six-storey building under a 25-year lease which provides for a break clause in the 15th year. It will also have the use of 340 car-parking spaces at £750 (#952) each. The company plans to use the building as a centre for managing the manufacturing, distribution, sales and data activities for 41 European, African and Middle Eastern markets. Microsoft's decision to opt for the Green site is hardly surprising given its proximity to its own campus in Sandyford as well as another of its buildings in the IDA's South County Business Park. In October 1999, Green paid £57.2 million (#72.6m) for Microsoft's four office investments with a total of 305,000 sq ft in a sale and 20year leaseback deal.
If final contracts are completed on the Atrium deal, it is thought likely that Green will consider offloading some of its Microsoft investments because by that stage it will be holding more than £120 million (#152m) in properties occupied by the computer company.
Meanwhile, Green Property Company last week launched a marketing campaign for an identical six-storey block at the Atrium Office Development which has now been completed. Three tenants have agreed letting terms on close to 70,000 sq ft at rents of around £20 (#25.39) per sq ft and several more have indicated their interest in moving in. The 180,000 sq ft building can be subdivided. Stephen Vernon, managing director of Green, said that if it had delayed the start of the building programme until now, it would be looking for considerably higher rents because of the sharp rise in building costs in the interim.
Colliers Jackson-Stops has a dual role in the Atrium building, representing both Microsoft and Green. Palmer McCormack is the other joint letting agent.
