Labour Party in move to penthouse in capital’s docks

The Labour Party is set to move its headquarters from a convenient but old-fashioned Georgian house on Ely Place, off St Stephen's Green, to a stunning penthouse overlooking the river Liffey in the south Dublin docklands.

With a general election due within a year, the party has taken a sub-lease of the top floor of the Bloodstone building at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay which has been occupied up to now by LogMeIn, an American company that provides remote access to any PC.

It already occupies about 1,207sq m (13,000sq ft) on the first floor and as the penthouse is “surplus to their requirements just now” it has agreed to sub-let it to Labour for at least two-and-a-half years.

Labour’s decision to move to the docklands follows its sale of 17 Ely Place for around €800,000 to the Sligo-based McHale Farm Machinery who bought the adjoining former Hume Street Hospital in 2012 for a knockdown price of just over €3 million – one-tenth of what it made six years earlier.

Finest in Silicon Docks

The eight-storey Bloodstone building, widely regarded as one of the finest in Silicon Docks, was developed during the property boom by Seán Dunne who, incidentally, is appealing the High Court’s refusal to set aside his Irish bankruptcy. In the meantime, the Bloodstone block has been acquired as part of a larger portfolio by the US-based private-equity firm

Blackstone

.

Labour will be paying a rent of €212,625 per annum for its lavish new accommodation – equating to €484 per sq m (€45 per sq ft) for the 438sq m (4,725sq ft) of floor space. A further fee of €3,500 will be paid for the use of one car-parking space in the basement.

A spokesman for Labour said they had outgrown Ely Place to such an extent that even the largest rooms were not large enough to accommodate meetings.

Michael Healy of Savills, who handled the letting, said that most of the remaining space in the Bloodstone building was occupied by high tech American companies.

Should Labour require more space then letting agents Lisney will be able to offer them the entire second floor at a rent of €49.50 per sq ft.