Trinity College appoint Savills to advise on development of €1bn ‘Trinity East’ innovation campus

Trinity College has appointed real estate group Savills to provide financial management and advice for the €1bn ‘Trinity East’ project. 

The project involves the potential development of an estimated 100,000 sq m Innovation Campus at Trinity’s current site at Grand Canal Dock.

The project involves the potential development of an estimated 100,000 sq m Innovation Campus at Trinity’s current site at Grand Canal Dock which is, in turn, located within the wider area of Ireland’s first designated Innovation District known as the Grand Canal Innovation District.

Upon completion, it is intended that the 5.5-acre site will deliver 40,000 sqm of academic space, 40,000 sq m of commercial space and 20,000 sqm of cultural and supporting uses, with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of €1bn.

Savills will advise Trinity College in the initial stages of the project to include preparation of the business case, market testing, formulating and design of the procurement strategy and, if appropriate, the securing a development partner to deliver the project.

The Savills team will be led by Mary Birmingham, the Project Director, and Ebba Mowat, Programme Manager, supported by Oliver Fursdon in Savills London office and his colleagues Alex McKinlay, Rory Brooke and Louis Sargent.

Mary Birmingham, Project Director commented:

“We are very excited to be part of this project – the first of its kind in Ireland. Savills has extensive experience in the development of innovation districts in cities around the world – which we will utilise for the execution and delivery of this strategically important development for the country as a whole.”

Ebba Mowat, Programme Manager commented:

“There is no better location in Dublin for an innovation district. Over the past 20 years, the area has been transformed and is now home to some of the world’s most innovative companies, such as Google, Facebook and HubSpot – to name a few. The addition of the Grand Canal Innovation District further adds to the locations’ reputation as a global hub for technology and innovation.”

Trinity East will house a major new research institute to be known as E3RI focused on bringing together multiple disciplines – engineering, computer science, natural sciences and material science – which will work at scale to tackle some of the most challenging research problems facing enterprise and society.

In addition, Trinity’s four national centres – the SFI Centres AMBER, CONNECT and ADAPT and the EI / IDA Technology Centre Learnovate – will be housed at the new campus; allowing enhanced interaction, collaboration and industry engagement.

The campus will also provide significant space for industry co-location and for the development of new and innovative incubation space for early stage and scaling companies. A key learning from international innovation districts is that the density and proximity of new and scaling businesses is essential to obtain the critical mass needed for the district to act as both an effective accelerator and attractor of companies.

Projects of this nature attract not just innovative companies but venture capital, angel investors, services companies and also the large multi-nationals who want to be aligned with and adjacent to the energy and disruption which comes from scaling companies. In addition, the presence of scaling companies also makes the campus and district economical and representative of the triple helix of government, academia and industry.