Grand Canal Dock (Irish:Duga na Canálach Móire) is an urban area on theSouthsideaSouthside of Dublin, Ireland. It is located on the border of eastern Dublin 2 and the westernmost part ofRingsend inDublin 4, surrounding the Grand Canal Docks, an enclosed harbour where theGrand Canal meets theRiver Liffey. The area has undergone significant redevelopment since 2000, as part of theDublin Docklands arearedevelopment project.
The area has become atech hub, serving as a popular location for multinational technology firms such asGoogle,[1]Facebook,[2]Twitter,[3]LinkedIn,[4] andAirbnb;[5] technology firms employed about 7,000 people in the area by 2015.[6] The area has been the subject of debate over the balance of development and gentrification.[7] It has been referred to asSilicon Docks[8][9][10] (a reference toSilicon Valley), a nickname which has been the subject of derision over its clichéd nature.[7]
There is no precise definition of the Grand Canal Dock area, but it is generally understood to be bounded by the Liffey to the north, South Lotts Road to the east (or Barrow Street if separatingSouth Lotts as its own area), Grand Canal Street to the south, and Macken Street to the west (although some maps show the area including as far west as the corner ofLeeson Street and Fitzwilliam Place). Grand Canal Dock containsGrand Canal Dock railway station and the nationalWaterways Ireland Visitor Centre.[citation needed]
Grand Canal Dock railway station, accessed from Barrow Street, opened in 2001 (although the line has been in use since 1834). In early 2014, five newDublin Bikes stations were opened in the area.
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The Grand Canal Docks first opened in 1796, built to a design byWilliam Jessop.[11] Before this development, from medieval times the area was associated with lepers, as recorded in some of the street names such asMisery Hill andLazer Lane.[12] At the time they were the world's largest docks. They fell into decline within just a few decades, due mostly to reduced canal usage with the arrival of the railways. The landscape was dominated by Dublin Gas Company's mountains of black coal, along with chemical factories, tar pits, bottle factories and iron foundries. However, bakers and millers maintained business along the southern edge of the inner basin.[13] By the 1960s, the Grand Canal Docks were almost completely derelict.
Around 1987 it was decided that Hanover Quay was too toxic to sell. Regeneration began in 1998, whenBord Gáis sold theDublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) the former gasworks site located in the area between Sir John Rogerson's Quay and Hanover Quay, for €19 million. The DDDA spent €52 million decontaminating the land, even though the likely return was estimated at just €40 million. The decontamination took place under the supervision of theEnvironmental Protection Agency, between 2002 and 2006. The process involved constructing an underground wall eight metres deep around the affected area, and the contaminated soil being dug out and removed. By the time the decontamination was finished, an inflated property bubble and increased demand in the area (brought on, in part, by the decision byGoogle to set up its European headquarters nearby), allowed the authority to sell the land for €300 million. The DDDA injected some of its new funds into the area's infrastructure including seats, street lighting, and civic spaces.[14]
In the wake of thedot-com bubble collapse from 1999 to 2001,IDA Ireland's director of operations in California, Dermot Tuohy, made moves to bring the at-the-time budding tech companies,PayPal,eBay, Overture (which would later become part ofYahoo!), andGoogle to Dublin. In 2002, Google executives agreed to investigate the possibility of opening operations in Dublin.
They viewed theDigital Hub in the city centre west, which now houses 900 people and is the location for the European headquarters of companies such asEventbrite andEtsy. Google's property advisors at the time also alerted them to an alternative location at Grand Canal Dock, identifying the potential of a number of buildings on Barrow Street owned by developer Liam Carroll. Within walking distance from the city centre, the location was seen by the company as having the right mix of factors to attract the type of employee they wanted in Dublin. Google's California offices encouraged a college campus-style atmosphere, something achievable in the Grand Canal Dock location. The visitors decided that once the building, which was still under construction, was complete, they would rent 60,000sq ft of Gordon House on Barrow Street, which they moved into in 2004. It was a choice subsequently seen by those in the IDA as a seismic shift for investment in Dublin. The agency, and many others including senior Google employees, felt the decision was directly responsible for many otherSilicon Valley names, such asTwitter andFacebook, choosing to set up shop nearby.[15]
Many of the new buildings around Grand Canal Dock were completed in 2007, just before the2008 financial crisis. This meant that many of these high-end buildings stood empty in the period of economic uncertainty that followed. Since 2012 in the wake of Ireland's economic recovery, international investors began buying prime office space in the area.[16]
In November 2013, a new fast-track planning scheme was approved by Dublin City Council to allow for docklands buildings of up to 22 floors in height – 50% higher than Dublin's tallest building at the time. TheDocklands Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) Planning Scheme gave council planners the power to make decisions that cannot be appealed to An Bord Pleanála, eliminating a source of potential delays for developers. The SDZ represented the first major planning initiative since the 2012 decision to wind up theDocklands Authority, but to retain an appropriate fast track planning framework to complete the Docklands project. Dublin City Council, which took over the Docklands Authority's powers, was determined to encourage the continued development of the 66 hectares, north and south of the river, that comprised the new planning zone. The plan identified five specific development hubs:Spencer Dock,Point Village, Grand Canal Dock,Britain Quay andBoland's Mill. One-third of the overall docklands area – 22 hectares – was earmarked for development. Buildings left uncompleted since the2008 financial crisis were since completed. Most notably, the formerAnglo Irish Bank building, the unfinished skeleton of which was an icon of the2008 financial crisis, was finished in 2017 by its new owner, theCentral Bank of Ireland.[16]
The housing crisis in Dublin, and the marked increase in the cost of living, put pressure on tech firms to retain staff in the Silicon Docks area. Many of such companies began to look elsewhere in Ireland to establish offices where the cost of living is more affordable.[17]
On 22 May 2014, it was announced that a fast-track planning process was approved byAn Bord Pleanala, with 366,000 square metres of office space and 2,600 homes to be developed across 22 hectares of land in the North Lotts and Grand Canal Dock areas under theDocklands Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) planning scheme.[18] A number of site plan notices were posted in the area including the following:
While it has been reported that the reasons behind the development of Silicon Docks are 'scarce' or 'challenging',[20] three areas are generally focused on, including corporatetax incentive,human capital, andseed funding.[21]
Ireland's low corporate tax rate—just 12.5%--has long attracted entrepreneurs and was once the country's key selling point for foreign business owners.[21] However, the tax implications that companies face in major deals have been described as an "impediment".[20] The headline rate of Capital Gains Tax ('CGT') was 33% as of August 2019.
In 2012,Citibank's annual list of most competitive cities in the world ranked Dublin as the city with the best "human capital." The city is home to dozens of colleges and universities, includingDublin City University,Trinity College Dublin,University College Dublin, andTechnological University Dublin.[21]
The local talent pool has received a boost fromGoogle,[22] which opened its Dublin headquarters in 2002 and has since been recruiting highly trained tech talent from all around the world,[23] thanks to Ireland's lenient work visa process. As of 2015, Google employs some 3,500 people in Dublin.Facebook,LinkedIn,Fleetmatics andTwitter, among others, employ hundreds more.[21]
The Competitive Start Fund ofEnterprise Ireland invests in 15 seed-stage start-ups every quarter. There are also other accelerators in the city offering start-ups much-needed seed funding, including Launchpad.[21] However, Prof Vinny Cahill, Dean of Research and computer science lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, explained in 2012, "There is definitely a growingventure capital community here. But if you look atSilicon Valley, there's a network of people who have been through the business and who encourage investment. It's starting to evolve in Dublin, but we're not at Silicon Valley's level yet."[20]
The nameSilicon Docks first appeared in 2011[24] as the area made a comeback amidst economic recovery after the projects were left unfinished during the2008 financial crisis. Since then, the term appeared in several articles by various media sources as well as Google Dublin's homepage.[25][9] A book titledSilicon Docks: The Rise of Dublin as a Global Tech Hub by Pamela Newenham was published byLiberties Press in January 2015.[15]Other nicknames for the area include theGoogle Basin.
Several of the buildings surrounding Grand Canal Square, such as the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, The Marker Hotel, and the HQ office development, were designed by McCauley Daye O’Connell Architects.[26]Notable features of the Grand Canal Dock area include:
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Grand Canal Square Square was completed in 2008. The €8 million plaza consists of red resin-glass paving that juts out into the water, dotted with illuminated red poles. Planted sections are arranged diagonally across the square.
TheAlto Vetro apartment building was awarded theRoyal Institute of the Architects of Ireland’s (RIAI) Silver Medal for Housing (2007-2008).[27] It was built by the Montevetro developersTreasury Holdings.
Boland's Mills was a functioning mill until 2001, after which the site, including older stone buildings and taller concrete silos, became derelict. The site underwent a €150 million reconstruction accommodating new residences, commercial, retail, and civic spaces.[28]
TheBord Gáis Energy Theatre is the largest theatre in Ireland. It was designed by Polish-American architectDaniel Liebeskind. It was opened as theGrand Canal Theatre in 2010 but renamed in March 2012 as part of a paid naming rights agreement.[29]
The Factory housesIrish Film and Television Network studios, as well as rehearsal and recording studios where a number ofU2's albums were recorded.
TheMontevetro building completed in 2010 stands at a height of 67 metres and is one of the tallest commercial building in Dublin. It was sold toGoogle in January 2011 and subsequently renamed "Google Docks".[1] In 2014, the Google Docks building was joined by the "Hyperlink" bridge - an "iconic" curving three-pronged steel and transparent glass footbridge to Google's two office buildings across Barrow Street - Gordon House and Gasworks House..[30][31]
The Marker Hotel is owned by development firm Tetrarch Capital and is one of only six ofThe Leading Hotels of the World in Ireland. It was designed in 2004 by Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus. It opened in 2013 and offers the city's first rooftop terrace and bar.[26]
Millennium Tower is an apartment building located on the Grand Canal outer basin. At 63 metres in height, it was thetallest storied building in Dublin from 1998 - 2009.
The modern office buildings alongside the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre were designed by architectDaniel Liebeskind and developed by Chartered Land. No 2 houses offices for Capita Asset Services & William Fry Solicitors. No 4 houses offices forFacebook's European headquarters.[9]
The following is a list of just some of the tech companies located in the Silicon Docks area, divided into geographical areas.[20]
Grand Canal Dock/Grand Canal Square
City centre east/IFSC
City centre south/Grand Canal
53°20′37″N6°14′15″W / 53.343497°N 6.23762°W /53.343497; -6.23762