Glandore Business Centres opens new €30m Dublin facility

Sunday Business Post - Done Deal - April 15 2007

Irish serviced office facilities provider Glandore Business Centres has invested €30 million to purchase, renovate and furnish its newly opened Fitzwilliam Hall centre.

The centre now offers 30,000 square feet of serviced office space and conferencing facilities in Dublin’s city centre.

The landmark Georgian building, which was previously owned by Bank of Ireland, is at the entrance to Fitzwilliam Place and overlooks the Grand Canal.

The property went on the market in 2003, and the purchase was completed in May 2005.

Refurbishment work, carried out by PJ Walls, began in June 2005 and was completed in May 2006.

The €30 million outlay is comprised of €22 million for the purchase of the property and €8 million for the refurbishment.

Michael Kelly, managing director of Glandore Business Centres, said the building was a perfect fit with its requirements.

‘‘It has a quality location, almost on Stephen’s Green,” Kelly said. ‘‘It is also a high quality building and the layout suited our purpose.”

The Fitzwilliam Hall centre offers serviced and virtual office space which includes mail and messaging handling, reception services and office support.

Costs such as property rates, essential services and insurance are covered within the monthly charge.

The building is now 90 per cent occupied and has the capacity for up to 250 work stations.

‘‘Our service is particularly attractive to small or medium-sized companies, as they can share services rather than having to provide them themselves,” Kelly said.

‘‘For example, they can hire a meeting room for an hour as opposed to having a meeting room sitting there except for two meetings a month.”

Kelly said the investment included a €1 million spend on IT systems.

‘‘We have Cat 6 cabling, a state of the art data centre and internal IT support and internet connectivity at whatever level you want,” he said.

Glandore Business Centres was founded by Kelly in 2001.

Turnover for 2006 was about €4 million. The company employs 17 staff and also operates facilities at 33 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2 and Arthur House in Belfast.

Kelly said a fourth property, in the Dublin area, was currently under consideration.