Around The Block

Exactly 40 years after Lisney opened for business on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green, the estate agency is getting ready to pull down the shutters and relocate to new offices in St Stephen’s Green House opposite the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace.

About 75 of the agency’s 100 Irish staff will be moving to the new 930sq m (10,000sq ft) premises at the end of January and apparently the company is also gearing up to open a high-profile showrooms in the south inner city.

Managing director James Nugent says the idea of someone driving around the various estate agency offices to see what houses are for sale is a “dead concept” that has been replaced by online and traditional media.

Lisney is not the only one of the big name agencies getting ready to relocate. Jones Lang LaSalle has already launched a search for suitable offices in the south inner city now that its landlords, IPUT, have got planning permission to demolish the existing block on Molesworth Street/South Frederick Street and replace it with a larger and more suitable building. Another tenant, the Passport Office, is also looking for alternative space preferably in a State- owned building in the city centre.

Jones Lang has been trading out of Molesworth Street for 34 years when the business was launched by the larger-than-life character Tommy Lombard. Current boss John Moran is hoping to rent 1,022sq m (11,000sq ft) of space on one level in Dublin 2 to accommodate 75 staff.