Software company Salesforce has confirmed plans to create 1,500 new jobs for Dublin over the next five years.
The move comes as the tech giant said it will move into a new eight-storey 430,000sq ft campus in the capital, locating it on North Wall Quay in the Silicon Docks area of the city.
Salesforce Tower Dublin, which will consist of four interconnected buildings, is being developed by Johnny Ronan and US investment group Colony Capital and will be located at Spencer Dock. The technology giant said it represents one of the largest investments it has ever made and, once completed, will be the most sustainable office campus in the Republic.
Ronan Group Real Estate said the new campus represents the largest-ever single office letting in the State.
Salesforce has been on the lookout for some time for a new home for its 1,400-strong existing Irish workforce, who are currently split between two buildings in Sandyford, Co Dublin. Among the locations put forward as potentials for the new campus were Dublin Landings, the Exo building at Point Village, and Bolands Quay, which has since been bought by Google.
Plans for the new building were unveiled at the National Convention Centre in Dublin on Friday morning, with employees expected to move into the new campus in mid-2021.
Elizabeth Pinkham, Salesforce’s executive vice-president for real estate, said the new building would be a “physical manifestation of the company’s culture” and a home for employees.
Local community
She added it would also be a home for the local community, with the building’s rooftop “Ohana floor” being made available to non-profits and local groups for free to use for events.
Salesforce is a software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to clients that include Accenture, Intel, Adidas, Merck and Sky. Founded by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris 20 years ago, the company is headquartered in San Francisco. It opened its first international hub in Dublin just a year after it first commenced operations. Core functions at the Dublin operation include sales, customer service, operations and engineering.
The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said Salesforce's investment "provides a huge boost for the Docklands and for Ireland at a time of economic and political uncertainty with Brexit on the horizon".
“This is a real vote of confidence in Ireland,” he added.
Separately, IDA Ireland chief executive Martin Shanahan noted that this is one of the largest single jobs announcements in the 70-year history of the inward investment agency.
The news follows on from other big job announcements from companies including Amazon and Facebook over the last year, and will likely lead to additional pressure on housing stock in the capital.
The ethos of Salesforce is that we become part of the communities we are in
Salesforce’s Ireland country manager David Dempsey said the company had not consulted with the Government over the housing issue and was not taking additional steps to help new employees find accommodation.
“The ethos of Salesforce is that we become part of the communities we are in and try not to artificially inflate that,” Mr Dempsey said.
“From our point of view we’re confident we can fill the jobs and confident that people who come here will find good-quality places to live,” he added.
Fastest-growing
The company is ranked as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies globally. Europe represents the group's fastest-growing region, with a 30 per cent growth rate, and Salesforce attributes much of that success to the work of its Irish team.
“In terms of the breadth of roles in Dublin, it is second only to San Francisco, so there is a really diverse set of employees,” said Chris Ciauri, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Salesforce, which recorded revenues of $10 billion (€8.77 billion) last year, on Friday also announced a $1 million donation to the charity Educate Together which will allow the education charity to open seven new schools.
Ronan Group Real Estate, and its backer Colony, also held the previous record for a single office letting locally when Facebook agreed to lease the entire 350,000sq ft Fibonacci Square scheme in Ballsbridge last November.
Ronan’s development pipeline in Dublin consists of approximately 3 million sq ft, which includes City Block 9, Tara Street, Fibonacci Square and Lehaunstown.
