Amazon in ‘talks on new office in Dublin’

AMAZON is in talks to rent an office block in Dublin with space for about 750 workers, according to sources.

The online retail giant is in negotiations to lease the 2 Burlington Plaza office block in central Dublin, according tothesource.

The 6,967sqm building is currently occupied by Bank of Ireland.

Amazon does not comment on rumours or speculation, a company spokesman said by email.

Should Amazon go ahead with the deal, which is not yet certain, it may help assuage concerns about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on Dublin’s real estate market, which is in part underpinned by US firms.

Demand for office space in the city fell 21pc in the first quarter of the year compared to the last three months of 2019, according to analysis from CBRE.

Twitter will allow employees to work from home permanently, while Facebook and Alphabet’s Google unit do not expect most staff to return to the office until 2021.

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All three tech giants have offices in Dublin.

Amazon employed about 2,500 people in Ireland at the end of 2018, according to the most recent accounts available for its Irish business, and said it would hire 1,000 more people in June 2018.

The company already has offices nearby in the Burlington Plaza complex, and is in the process of setting up its first fulfilment centre in Ireland on the outskirts of the city.

The pandemic has raised concerns as to whether globalisation will be thrown into reverse, with the US leading the way with protectionist measures and seeking to re-shore manufacturing of pharmaceuticals that is based elsewhere.

Ireland is one of Europe’s exporting powerhouses and, relative to the size of the economy, trade is far more significant here than it is in Germany.

The State’s low tax business model is also under threat from proposed new global tax rules which would hit the technology sector especially hard.

Research from consultancy EY earlier this week suggested that the majority of foreign investment currently planned for Ireland would go ahead despite the risks from coronavirus.