Cork law firm making the move from South Mall to MacCurtain Street

Thompson House. Solicitors’ firm JRAP O’Meara is this week finalising a lease on close to 12,000 sq ft at the location.

A progressive Cork law firm, with company roots going back 150 years, is leaving modern offices on the South Mall to take up a larger space at the reborn Victorian Quarter, on MacCurtain Street.

Solicitors’ firm JRAP O’Meara is this week finalising a lease on close to 12,000 sq ft at the former Thompson House on the rejuvenated MacCurtain Street.

The street, under Patrick’s Hill and Wellington Road and bookended by new hotels at Camden Quay and Horgans Quay with another due at the Coliseum, is steadily evolving into one of Cork’s most diverse and successful thoroughfares.

It’s home to a theatre, two hotels and more on the way, interiors shops, numerous bars and restaurants, niche traders and, now, after a public realm upgrade, vastly improved with calmer, two-way traffic reinstated after decades used as a traffic-choked thru’ road.

Attracting a major professional services firm to the street – especially one prepared to leave the traditional commercial heartland of the South Mall – is a coup too.

“It would have been seen as an unusual setting for a law firm, it’s a brave move but they are coming to the heart of a cultural city with a whole lot to offer,” says John Lynch of Thompsons House, the wholly repurposed former bakery which dates back almost 200 years, to 1826, and where the baker ovens went cold in the depressed 1980s.

“There are more people working here now than when it was a bakery too,” says Mr Lynch of the family owned property which, along with Penrose Wharf also successfully redeveloped by his father Jack Lynch, provides employment bases for over 1,000 city centre jobs, including Starwood/Marriott, employing over 500, as well as the likes of Siemens, Global Shares and Collins Aerospace.

He said he had been aiming “for someone to fall in love with the space” at Thompson House when he worked with Fourem architect John Hegarty on the historic early 19th industrial/bakery building, with award-winning 1960s extension, and which now scores a highly impressive B1 BER.

JRAP O’Meara will be joining the likes of The Glass Curtain high-end restaurant, Bunzl catering supplies, Vsource and Thompsons restaurant and microbrewery, with dozens of other bars and restaurants in the wider Victorian Quarter catchment, back to Bridge Street and out to Kent Railway Station and up around St Luke’s Cross too.

Partner at JRAP Jerry Canty said they were thrilled with their imminent move, with some of the partners having visited first out of curiosity, and later bringing the full workforce for a viewing. They fell for the building and the lifestyle location and the working environment, with myriad public transport options and places to meet clients.

“With the new Mary Elmes Bridge and Harley Street, it’s just a four to five minute walk to the city on the other side of the river,” added Mr Canty, while the street also has cycle lane, and a bus station and rail station on its doorstep.

Notably, this move didn’t come with car parking, as it wasn’t an issue in deciding on locating on MacCurtain Street and there are parking options in the vicinity.

With ink now set to dry on the legal/lease contracts, Jerry Canty said he admired John Lynch’s “huge vision for the building, when we got there – even though MacCurtain Street was a building site at the time with traffic changes - we could see its huge potential. It’s a little bit different, but we liked that.” JRAP O’Meara have now started their fit-out, using landlord John Lynch’s own architect John Hegarty/Fourem, and are taking 11,700 sq ft at an undisclosed rent, likely to be just under the €200,000 pa which had been quoted by appointed letting agent David McCarthy of Lisney.

JRAP will be moving from the upgraded 1970s era 89/90 South Mall (formerly Norwich Union House), acquired seven years ago by JCD Group and where they had c 7,000 sq ft.

The move will allow more space for JRAP’s current complement of 20 solicitors and 20 support staff, and the expectation is that the firm which specialises in the commercial sector will continue to grow and expand employment.

Their relocation decision to the buzzy MacCurtain Street area follows a year after estate agency Savills also departed from the South Mall after decades there for Penrose House at Penrose Dock, also coincidentally a period building, upgraded to an A BER standard by JCD Group.

It’s not all one-way traffic for the South Mall and its allure for legal firms, with the large commercial group RDJ returning to the South Mall at No 85, taking 18,000 sq ft after a decade at City Gate in Mahon where it had 27,000 sq ft, while other law firms have also made recent moves and amalgamations.

And, notably, all are committed to office-based work environments.

Details: Lisney 021-4275079