The troubled Internet security software company, Baltimore Technologies, has succeeded in offloading two new office blocks it originally planned to occupy along the Dublin city quays at Parkgate Street.
But in another sign of the slowdown of the office letting market because of the difficulties facing the technology sector, a British company has pulled out of a deal to lease O'Connell Bridge House in the centre of Dublin only days before it was due to complete contracts.
Marylebone Warwick Balfour Group plc (MWB), which specialises in short-term office lettings, had been in negotiations for almost three months to rent the landmark building on O'Connell Bridge which has been extensively refurbished.
Baltimore, one of the victims of the technology sector purge, has its 20,000 sq ft headquarters at Parkgate Business Centre, Dublin 8.
It has now agreed terms to assign the leases of two adjoining blocks, one a 22,575 sq ft building and the other with 14,710 sq ft.
Willie Dowling of Insignia Richard Ellis Gunne, which is handling the assignment, would not identify the new tenants who will be paying rents of £21.25 (27) per sq ft, well below the open market rent for the area.
They will also be able to avail of a rent free period for three months in the second quarter of the lease. The 25 year lease also provides a break option in the 15th year.
O'Connell Bridge House is one of three blocks - the other two are on the Continent - cancelled by MWB because of the slowdown in the economy generally and particularly the IT industry, according to Robert Murphy of Gunne, who is acting for the company.
MWB is in direct competition with the other serviced office provider Regus, which has now embarked on a price war in an attempt to reverse the fall-off in business.
For the first time in years, the number of workstations occupied by paying customers has fallen.
MWB was due to pay almost £40 (50.79) per sq ft for the 11-storey block which has 64,644 sq ft of space.
The Department of the Environment had been paying a rent of £6.96 (8.84) per sq ft for the space until the 35-year lease ran out early last year.
Since then the owner, John Byrne, has spent around £10 million (12.7m) on a major refurbishment which included providing raised access floors, dropped ceilings and air conditioning.
MWB had also negotiated a rent free period as a condition of leasing it along with 55 car-parking spaces at a rent of £2,000 (2,539) each in one of Mr Byrne's other blocks on nearby Tara Street.
