State’s wealth fund commits €100 million to Dublin ‘smart office’ development

An investment of €100 million has been committed by the State’s sovereign wealth fund towards the construction of an ultra-modern “smart office” block in Dublin’s south inner city, the commercial property developer behind the project has said.

This will act as the starting point for IPUT Real Estate’s €500 million premium office development pipeline, the company added, and “marks a deepening of the relationship” between the firm and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a development fund under the directorship of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

The money is earmarked for the development of 29 Earlsfort Terrace, the former office of Deloitte Ireland which IPUT bought in 2018 during a slew of transactions, with two other central Dublin properties purchased, totalling €160 million.

The site sits at the corner of Hatch Street and Earlsfort Terrace, equidistant to the Grand Canal and St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin 2. Across the road from the National Concert Hall, its neighbours include the headquarters of law firms Arthur Cox and Eversheds Sutherland and investment bank KKR.

IPUT, founded in 1967, maintains a commercial portfolio valued at €2.7 billion with over two million square feet of office space across 30 assets in Dublin’s city centre.

With the capital injection from the ISIF, the company says it “has now raised over €400 million in new equity in 2026” having secured €300 million in “new revolving credit facilities from ABN AMRO, Bank of Ireland and ING, which sit alongside existing lenders AIB and Barclays”.

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Niall Gaffney, the chief executive of IPUT, said the ISIF investment “is a strong endorsement of our strategy”.

“It provides us with the capital to advance the first stage of our development pipeline at 29 Earlsfort Terrace, where we have just appointed a main contractor and expect to be on site before year-end,” he said.

Sarah Hickey, ISIF’s senior investment director, said: “IPUT has an established track record of delivering high-quality, sustainable workplaces, and we look forward to supporting the next phase of IPUT’s development pipeline.”

The project “will deliver a significant addition to Dublin’s Grade A office stock, and the project will enhance Ireland’s attractiveness for international investment and support employment growth,” she said.