Serviced office business set to be launched Sunday, June 14, 2009 By Ian Kehoe A Dublin lawyer plans to defy the downturn by opening a multimillion-euro chain of serviced offices for small firms and businesses that are scaling back their operations.
Howard Doyle has spent €4.1million developing his first block of serviced offices in Blackrock in south Dublin.
The 35-year-old solicitor now intends to develop similar suites other Dublin suburbs under the name Officesuites.ie. He has acquired a site in Killiney, on the southside of Dublin, where he plans to invest €3 million.
He said the development was at the planning stage and should be operating within a year. When complete, the 5,000-square-foot premises will have 28 offices with 80 work stations.
Doyle said he was also looking at sites in Dalkey, Monkstown, Malahide and Howth. He said that the Blackrock office had been open for four months, and had already reached 60 per cent occupancy.
According to Doyle, a number of his clients are companies which had laid off staff and needed ‘‘more realistic office space’’ at short notice.
‘‘People can rent an office for one day to one year,” according to Doyle.’ ‘We provide work stations, phone lines, everything you need to run an office.”
Unlike most serviced office blocks, Doyle said, his chain would be based in suburbs of Dublin, rather than the city centre.
‘‘They will be out of town, in salubrious suburbs,” he said.
‘‘People are sick to death of commuting, they can’t hack the traffic any more.” Officesuites.ie also operates a ‘‘business assist programme’’, through which the company helps its clients source everything from solicitors to printers.’ ‘We are in the business of helping people stay in business, so it makes sense.”
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