How Ella House’s Refurbished Suites Are Quietly Shaking Up the Future of Flexible Office Space—And What You Need to Know Now
Ever wondered if a flexible office space could feel less like a drab cubicle farm and more like stepping into a five-star boutique hotel? Well, Ella House on Dublin’s Merrion Square isn’t just rewriting the rules—it’s tearing up the old script entirely. With seamless hospitality, luxurious surroundings, and top-tier tech, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill co-working space. It’s a masterclass in blending historic charm with state-of-the-art functionality, proving that Georgian buildings can be more about calm precision and less about creaky floors and lousy Wi-Fi. What if the secret to inspiring productivity isn’t more gadgets, but a genuine, five-star human touch that anticipates your every need? Ella House isn’t just an office; it’s a vibrant ecosystem where service meets style, where business stories hook investors not just with numbers, but with heart. Ready to see how a historic site transformed by sharp minds and hands-on craftsmanship fosters an irresistible environment for some of the world’s top companies? Dive in and find out. LEARN MORE
With seamless hospitality, luxurious surroundings and state-of-the-art facilities, the refurbished Ella House suites on Dublin’s Merrion Square rewrite the rules for flexible office space in the capital, writes Alanna Gallagher
The new flex offices are less about swagger and more focused on service. They disrupt the idea that Georgian properties are draughty and have terrible wi-fi with a high-end refurbishment and a five-star hotel-trained approach to human capital.
In any business a good story can help hook investors, but only if the numbers stack up and the right team is in place.
A boutique offer at the premium level of the flex office market, Ella House has all this. It’s the brainchild of Kevin Stanley along with property development Sonbrook business partners Paul McEnroe, co-founder and managing principal at Bolt Capital, and accountant John Ryan.
With his brother Michael and financier Alan McIntosh, Stanley was a founding shareholder of Cairn Homes, one of the country’s biggest house-builders. He served as chief commercial officer from before its IPO in 2015 to 2019 and was also a beneficiary of the founder share scheme.
The five adjoining Georgian buildings on Merrion Square had been put on the market by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) for €15 million in 2019. The interconnecting buildings, which were then still occupied by ESB staff, and the Cairn co-founder and partners, paid this amount for the protected structures in December 2020, tapping Investec Private Finance to part-fund the purchase.
The ESB stayed on, giving them their first client. Now through what appear to the untrained eye to be gentle interventions, like the very best plastic surgery, they are delivering a work environment that takes its cues from five-star hospitality operations.
Upon entering the building, the place is reassuringly calm. Everything feels rock solid. The sound is dimmed so that workers can, well, work and lighting is ambient with enough task options to illuminate.
It is the essence of quiet luxury and soft power at play. “I wanted to blow the myth that this type of building is draughty and has terrible wi-fi. We have fibre lines front and back from a trusted provider,” Stanley explains.
Every floor has been insulated and soundproofed to “almost new-build standards”. Linen-backed wallpapers and Arte printed papers add pattern and texture while softening sound.
All this contributes to the feeling of calm Ella House exudes. It looks and feels more like a boutique hotel than an office block. Even the desks are broader, 120cm wide instead of an industry average of 90cm.
This ambiance is deliberate. “We have a five-star hospitality team,” Stanley says. This is led by Ileana Turian, head of member relations at Sonbrook, who is in the background anticipating all the time. She’s warm, but not too in-your-face. It’s the perfect balance, says Kim Hogan, associate director at Work there Ireland, Savills flexible office specialist.
“You can’t explain it. As an agent, from my experience and I travel across the island, she is a pleasure to deal with.”
For Stanley, it was her “practical, can-do attitude. She never says no.” Crucially, he adds, she also didn’t come from the flex office sector.
“Every member of the team is trained in the art of hospitality as well as standard operating procedures. It’s all part of the business model, which is about connection and showing you care,” Turian explains.
She spent nine years at The Shelbourne Hotel working on events before Stanley hired her. Previously she had worked at the Garda Recreation Club, The Gresham Hotel and catering giant Sodexco.
When something isn’t working, it is fixed and fixed quickly by a human who knows your name and can arrange catering, Turian says.
This hospitality-driven approach to client relations is less about swagger and more about guest services and assistance.
Twenty of the 24 companies are international with private equity, tech firms and top legal sectors all well represented. “They want high-calibre offices where they can meet and greet. They also want a really high level of service,” Stanley says.
Those clients include Russell Investments, a global investment group headquartered in Seattle, with US$327 billion assets under management; Titan Aviation; Exponent, a private equity firm buying several established Irish businesses; KTA, a specialist Irish tax advisory; Pantheon Ventures, a London-based private equity firm; and Squire Patton Boggs, a US-based global law firm. The top two floors of each building comprise penthouse suites.
Clients who had signed for the industry average of 18-month agreements have now signed for five years. The average duration at Ella House is three years. It has 100 per cent occupancy across its 340 desks and suites which can accommodate between 7 and 25 people. Prices are from €40,000 to €250,000 per year per suite, depending on size and location.
For Hogan, what makes Ella House stand out is its client-led design. “There are 10 meeting rooms on site, which is a huge number for a flex office building. They also have kitchens and lounges across the buildings, plus their programme of events is really well received. Moreover, the service levels are five-star and this is reflected in the types of businesses opting to take space there.”
Hogan has placed three companies across industries here. “Ella House is attractive to a business looking for a premium service offering and a beautiful, comfortable office space with access to ample on-site amenities.”
Savills’ Flexmark 5.0 research (which is completed by flex office operators annually), shows that the average flex building occupancy in Dublin 2, which accounted for almost three quarters of flexible office deals in 2025, is currently 82 per cent, holding steady year-on-year. Occupancy across the sector is 80 to 90 per cent. In contrast, Ella House has a 100 per cent rate.
Is it a business model that has scope to grow? Absolutely, Hogan says. “As companies determine their return to office [RTO] strategies, buildings that have onsite gyms, offer free breakfast and host events are essential to encouraging people back into the office, attracting talent and retaining it. The flexible terms mean a business can take a smaller space to start, and within their contracted term they can grow into a larger space if needed.”
The restoration and refurbishment were overseen by conservation architects Howley Hayes Cooney and their director Lucy O’Connor, along with 21 Spaces and interiors by Natalia Sutherland. Many of the framed prints were supplied by the Graphic Studio Gallery.
But Stanley was also very hands-on. “We developed it, did all the construction work,” he says. The exterior brick has been repointed to seal it, while the spaces inside have been discreetly opened up by the clever use of Crittall-style steel and glass partitions to create a sense of flow. All five buildings are already interconnected — something he would not get permission to do now. There is also a lift in number 39, installed by the ESB.
It is the attention to detail throughout that impresses. Stanley determined that the parquet discovered under a blue carpet was reused. An original floor in one of the boardrooms had been protected from any interventions and was sanded and stained. He spent who knows how much time online, acquiring pieces at auction from sites such as Panomo.
A smart 1970s brass floor lamp now stands in the reception area, for example.
He’s also happy pulling his car over en route to somewhere to peruse an antique or vintage market. Teak mid-century elbow chairs that he found at Strandfield, a farmhouse café outside Dundalk, have been smartly reupholstered.
They sit in one of the square-facing meeting rooms where boardroom tables have been custom-made in the north of Ireland to deliver the depth needed, with raised plug boards for the various presentation requirements.
One of the many components of Ella House’s appeal is that it is named after Dr Ella Webb, who as lady district superintendent of the St John’s Ambulance commandeered 40 Merrion Square, then the charity’s headquarters, and turned it into a field hospital during the Easter Rising in 1916.
With the help of others, she founded the purpose-built Children’s Sunshine Home for convalescents, then at Stillorgan, Co. Dublin.
The house next door, number 39, became the British Embassy in the 1950s. Following the killing of civil rights marchers in Derry on Bloody Sunday, in February 1972 a crowd of thousands congregated outside to protest.
Petrol bombs were thrown at the building, with one gelignite explosive blowing open the front door. By this time, the state-owned ESB already owned numbers 40 to 43 Merrion Square and the same body subsequently acquired and restored number 39.
There are period features aplenty, from fine plaster ceilings to cornicing. One of its best talking points is the brass gin rail in number 43, designed as a place for good sirs to prop themselves up while they waited for their carriage.
No doubt some of the captains of industry currently installed here have made use of it, after an evening’s entertainment in the tented garden to the rear.
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