In 2019, before any of us had heard of Covid-19, I made the decision to relocate from London to my hometown in Mayo, on the Atlantic Coast of Ireland. Little did I know that my dreams of pursuing my international marketing career from a remote workplace would have to compete with the relentless challenges of a pandemic.
I moved in late 2020 and joined Fine Grain Property as Business Development Director in January 2021. And thankfully, I have been able to pursue my career (from home in Mayo and on site around Ireland) in this exciting sector.
The past year has provided proof of Ireland’s economic and social resilience. Despite the growth in remote working, it’s also proven how crucial the availability of quality workspaces is to the prosperity and future growth of Ireland’s businesses.
Going from strength to strength
In spite of the challenges, Fine Grain Property and Ireland are going from strength to strength. Ireland remains the EU’s fastest growing economy [Eurostat]. Foreign direct investment (FDI) surged in 2021, with more than half the 249 deals done last year landing outside Dublin [IDA Ireland]. FDI employment has hit a record high. Enterprise Ireland, which promotes domestic Irish businesses, saw the steepest rise in employment it’s ever seen, with 68% of new jobs created outside Dublin last year.
Across Ireland, domestic and foreign businesses alike have chosen to locate themselves in places like Galway, Limerick and Cork, attracted by their excellent infrastructure, high quality tertiary education and bright, innovative people. These cities have become thriving regional centres of innovation that are home to many of the world’s biggest and most forward-thinking companies.
At Fine Grain Property, we’re proud to be playing a part in this evolution by providing great workplace communities for these companies. Global leaders like Legato, Bosch, and Veryan Medical have recently chosen to locate their businesses in our modern, amenities-rich workplaces to attract and retain talent and foster innovation. World-class businesses need world-class workspaces, after all.
New job opportunities at Fine Grain
There’s more good news: we’re hiring. We’re looking for an Asset Manager to help shape our growing portfolio of office space into great workplace communities, an Investment Analyst to research and develop investment strategies and a Marketing Communications Executive to spread the word about how we’re fuelling the evolution of Ireland’s business parks around the changing needs of the companies that occupy them.
Since 2016, Fine Grain Property has built up a €220 million modern business park portfolio that spans 15 properties across Ireland. Our aim is to develop workplace communities that benefit from quality infrastructure, great transport links and first-class amenities such as restaurants, bookable meeting rooms, collaboration space, cycle storage, running routes, green space and more.
Fine Grain helps world-class companies thrive in Ireland’s regions
The attractions of Ireland are myriad. A business-friendly environment has historically helped attract the giants of tech, pharma and aviation to Ireland, and our young and highly educated workforce, world-class universities and the relatively low cost of living have convinced them to stay. At Fine Grain Property, we aim to play our part in this, by adding great workplaces across Ireland.
Ireland’s regional business parks have long been an overlooked and undermanaged sector. Therein lies the opportunity. By focusing our investment on well-connected sites that are close to centres of tertiary education, affordable housing and the splendour of the Irish countryside we are helping our clients attract and retain talent.
We run on talent
Talent, of course, is what all businesses need to thrive. We are no different. Our small team combines experience in property, finance, investor relations, marketing and the like to build success for our clients with great workplace communities, provide excellent service and deliver stable and consistent returns for our investors.
Our team is based across Ireland, mirroring the geographic spread of the country’s growth. For example, spanning the breadth of the country are Founder and CEO Colin MacDonald and Finance Director Kevin Mahony who are both based in Dublin. Over in the West, there’s me in Mayo, Real Estate Director Damien Kilgannon in Sligo, and Senior Asset Manager Kevin Conlon in Galway.
Our growth is set to accelerate
We’re busier than ever. With the decline of the threat posed by the pandemic, we’re stronger than ever too. As a testament to our superb clients, throughout the past two years of disruption, our rents have been 100% maintained and we have continued to grow our business. Those years have also reinforced the importance of the physical workplace for our growing client base, as we will reveal in our ground-breaking Workplace Community survey in the coming months.
The workplace communities that we provide are places where brand values are communicated, people collaborate and socialise, ideas percolate and innovation thrives. We have the capital, skills, experience and client-base, and are ready to accelerate our growth. That’s why we’re looking for new people to join our team.
The Fine Grain approach to building workplace communities
Our portfolio is proof that like attracts like in business. For example, Westpark Shannon Business Campus is a centre for aviation and logistics companies clustered around Shannon Airport and Plassey Business Campus has attracted notable tech and life science players due to it being in the University of Limerick’s back yard. But these communities were not built by location alone.
Innovative building design and landscaping are crucial. We are providing shared spaces and communal facilities such as restaurants, meeting rooms, shower facilities, natural features and more to allow diverse but like-minded people from different departments and companies to work, play and relax together.
Brighter Fine Grain Facilities, Friends & Futures
The headwinds blowing across the global economy have been huge over the past two years. But despite Covid, Brexit, global tax harmonisation, mounting pressure on supply chains and soaring inflation, the Irish economy and Fine Grain Property have steered a steady course and maintained growth throughout. With promising tailwinds now behind us, it’s time to fly.
We summarise our approach using three pillars: Fine Grain Facilities covers our commitment to delivering great spaces and services; Fine Grain Friends is our dedication to delivering experiences that create belonging; Fine Grain Futures is our focus on making meaningful changes which impact positively in a very visible way.
If you have the skills, experience and passion to help build success for our clients by creating great workplace communities, contact us here.
Written by
Karen Mulligan, Business Development Director, Fine Grain Property
