Airbnb quits Ringsend lease for more offices on Hanover Quay

Online short lettings firm Airbnb has leased more than 3,715sq m (40,000sq ft) of space at the Reflector office building on Hanover Quay, directly beside its existing European headquarters building, and plans to build a physical link between the two blocks.

In 2014 the company selected the Watermarque building in Ringsend as its European regional headquarters, and it retained those offices after expanding to its current warehouse-style headquarters on Hanover Quay in 2016. The company now plans to end its lease at the Watermarque, and relocate employees currently based there to the Reflector towards the end of 2019, once Dublin-based firm Heneghan Peng completes the fit-out of the new offices. A spokesperson for Airbnb said the move would allow the company to have its Dublin team “more closely linked”, rather than continuing to occupy two offices some distance apart.

When complete the company will occupy nearly 7,430sq m (80,000sq ft) of space on Hanover Quay, at the heart of Dublin’s so-called Silicon Docks. This is about four times the space it initially occupied when it first opened its Dublin office five years ago, highlighting its rapid growth to date. The company said its new lease at Hanover Quay would not increase its capacity, describing the move as a “like-for-like exchange of space.”

Seán O'Neill, managing director of Park Developments, developer of the Reflector, said his company was "delighted to welcome Airbnb" as the building's latest tenant, following completion of construction last November.

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International occupiers

The building features net office space extending to 11,451sq m (123,250sq ft), and is almost fully let by international occupiers including web designers Wix and software provider LogMeIn.

About 2,045sq m (22,000sq ft) of space across two floors remains available, for which agent Savills is seeking rents of €60 per square foot. Recent lettings in the block ranged from €55.50 to €62.50 per square foot.

Aside from office space, the docklands development also incorporates a ground-floor restaurant and 40 apartments, which will be to be offered for sale by Lisney. They will be the second of just two new homes schemes to have launched in the Grand Canal Dock area since the property market began to recover in 2013.

The first, Hanover Lofts, offered one- and two-bed units priced from €435,000 to €695,000 and sold out swiftly following its 2017 launch. Two years on, the Reflector apartments are likely to attract even higher prices when they launch this spring based on Cairn Homes's sale last year of 120 units at neighbouring Six Hanover Quay for an average of €800,000 per unit to investor Carysfort Capital.