Multinational fit-out firm plans office and auditorium for 120 Skerries staff

DESIGN and fit-out firm Sonica is to repurpose part of a local north Dublin shopping centre into a 120-seater auditorium as an office development to accommodate 124 staff.

Sonica — which fits out data centres and other high-profile facilities for multinational clients — plans to lease part of the centre that was originally designed as a pub at Skerries Point.

The office development will be the first of its kind for Skerries and is part of a bid by the centre’s owner, Marbleside, to let out portions of the centre. It has been empty since it was built at the end of the property boom in 2007. It is also awaiting a ruling by An Bord Pleanála on a proposed McDonald’s restaurant at the centre, which raised a large number of local objections.

The office development represented “a significant opportunity” to address the vacancy issue and “bring significant employment to the Skerries area”, according to a planning submission.

The empty pub is to be converted to a 120-seat auditorium and presentation area, which will “be used primarily for staff events, launches and conferences”, it said in its planning submission, filed last week.

The application said that “occasionally, the space will also be used for ‘Open Door’ events where members of the public and business community can attend Sonica-hosted talks, conferences or social events”.

Sonica is to occupy 50pc of the office with, according to the files, “the other 50pc used as a “bespoke incubator space for new foreign direct investment clients entering the Irish market” to “work, interview, hire and grow from”.

It said that “Sonica will offer rent-free periods for incoming clients and give them full access to Sonica’s design, agency; legal and construction staff ” as part of its “First Landings” model before the clients move into new offices designed and fitted out by Sonica.

“The intention will that there will be a consistent turnover of new Sonica clients into and out of the space.”